A new strategy, Leading International Business, has been launched by HSBC Bank Malta and supported by Government and its entities with the aim of assisting both local businesses seeking to expand overseas and international businesses relocating to Malta. The strategy was launched during a press conference addressed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tonio Borg, HSBC Malta CEO Alan Richards and Mr Cottell at the Malta Maritime Museum.

“HSBC’s cooperation in helping domestic companies to expand overseas and at the same time assisting international companies in their relocation decisions is vital for a country such as Malta with a very small domestic market and totally dependent on export demand,” said Minister Borg. “Trade in goods and services lies at the core of Malta’s interactions with other countries. This together with our small size intensifies the challenges of breaking into and competing in global markets. The Bank has an important role to play in facilitating trade and investment between their clients, in helping our local companies to go global and to strengthen Malta’s position on the international map.”

Dr Borg said that to ignore or consider that Malta is immune to the consequences of the current financial crisis is like denying the existence of globalisation only to find out, possibly too late in the day, that such forces have driven you out of business. “It is in the light of these considerations that in the last Budget the Government introduced a packet of incentives aimed to provide support to businesses in their entrepreneurships and innovation efforts and to assist firms to penetrate new markets,” he said.

“Undoubtedly, a very important element of the strategic objectives of Malta’s Foreign Policy is to bring Malta’s relations with other countries closer and deeper in all sectors and to seek to improve, exploit and maximise our trade and investment relations with overseas markets including new and emerging economies. Linking inextricably external relations with commercial relations besides representing political realities underline the conviction that the former gives real meaning and added value to the latter,” said Dr Borg. Alan Richards, CEO at HSBC Bank Malta said the Leading International Business initiative is a key HSBC strategic imperative. “Over the years we have helped a large number of clients in Malta to grow their businesses both domestically and internationally. As an International Bank, we believe we can do more to grow our cross border business simply because it plays to HSBC’s strengths and we enjoy a natural comparative advantage over local Banks.”

The HSBC Group is present in 85 countries. “Being an international bank operating in a strong domestic franchise puts us in a good position to facilitate trade and investment between our clients, crossing culture, geography and time zone,” said Richard J Cottell, Head of Commercial Banking at HSBC Malta said.

In order to achieve this aim, HSBC is working closely with and supporting the Government, the Malta Financial Services Authority, Finance Malta, Malta Enterprise, The Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise and local professionals. “Our aim is to have a series of initiatives to promote Malta in a coordinated fashion. These will take the form of trade missions, seminars, presentations, and overseas delegations visiting Malta. By way of examples, we were actively involved with the Prime Minister’s visit to the Czech Republic last December, and the President’s trade delegation to Poland, the largest ever to leave Malta involving 60 local businesses, in January,” said Mr Cottell.

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