FIAS officials visit FOI

Joe Pace, FOI vice-president and chairman of the Economic and Financial Affairs Working Group, welcomed Joe Bergsman and Xavier Forneris, consultant and programme co-ordinator, respectively, from the Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), a joint agency of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) specialising in incentives legislation and foreign direct investment, to the FOI's offices last Monday.

The meeting dealt mainly with various issues related to tax and non-tax incentives in the context of their attractiveness or otherwise to both local and foreign investors in the manufacturing sector in Malta.

The discussion focused on the Business Promotion Act and on ways to improve its effectiveness. The FOI stressed the underlying need for long-term economic reforms to make Malta more competitive as an investment location.

A responsive Business Promotion Act, supplemented by a clear export strategy and sound fiscal and industrial policies attuned to the constraints of a small island economy must accompany these reforms.

Malta Enterprise chief officer Stephen Sultana accompanied Mr Bergsman and Mr Forneris to the meeting. For the FOI there was also its director-general Edwin Calleja, Economic and Financial Affairs Working Group member Nick Xuereb and tax adviser Neville Gatt.