Grant Thornton rewards enterprise, FDI

Tunisian Ambassador Abdessalem Hetira and retired Maltese industrialist Peter Muscat Scerri are the winners of this year's Grant Thornton Award for Enterprise and Foreign Direct Investment.

President Guido de Marco presented them with the award at a ceremony held at Le Meridien Phoenicia in the presence of around 100 guests.

The award, now in its second edition, is held annually to honour persons who have distinguished themselves as entrepreneurs or as promoters of enterprise, foreign trade and incoming foreign direct investment.

Last year's awards went to the then US Ambassador Kathryn Proffitt and to a foreign-owned manufacturer of machine-tools for export, Malta Moulds Limited of Hal Far.

Ambassador Hetira, 53, a social scientist with a research doctorate from the University of Oslo in Norway, was chosen for the award because of "his effective effort to promote business relationships between entrepreneurs in Malta and Tunisia, which result in a win-win situation for both countries".

Peter Muscat Scerri, 67, founder of the Rimus Group of Companies, was presented the award "for his lifetime achievement in business, an achievement based on sheer personal hard work as well as on the will and the ability to transform challenges into opportunities".

Present for the ceremony were representatives of the diplomatic corps, including the Ambassadors of the European Union, Britain and Germany, senior officials of public corporations and the constituted bodies, among which the Malta Development Corporation and the Federation of Industry, as well as numerous representatives of the world of banking, industry, commerce and professional services also attended.

Grant Thornton managing partner Martin Bonello-Cole addressed the guests on the importance of family businesses in a balanced national economy as well as on the specific problems faced by such firms. Between 70 and 80 per cent of businesses worldwide fall into this category and between them generate more than half the world's GDP.

In response to the particular needs of family businesses, which must constantly strive to balance family needs and business priorities, Grant Thornton has developed a new informative Website, www.familybizz.net. The site was launched worldwide last week with the participation of Grant Thornton in all the 110 countries in which it is present.