The President of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, today received Mr Mohammed Laid Benamor, President of the Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ms Behloul Ouahiba, International Relations Manager of the Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, together with Mr Riadh Amour and Mr Riad Fechkeur, General Managers of Groupe Amour and Redmed Group respectively.
Mr Mohamed Laid Benamor is leading a business delegation of 45 Algerian entrepreneurs, currently in Malta to participate in a Maltese-Algerian Business Forum tomorrow. This will be the third opportunity for Maltese and Algerian businessmen to network and partner with their Algerian counterparts, and is a follow-up to the fora held during the visit by the Prime Minister and the State Visit in Algeria by The President of Malta.
President Coleiro Preca thanked Trade Malta and The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry for organising this business forum and said that the visits by the Prime Minister in October and the Presidential State Visit in January, together with the current reciprocal visit backed by a strong business delegations “are all clear indications that there is not only scope but also eagerness on both sides to step up bilateral commercial relations.
“To this end”, the President added, “both sides should seriously consider entering into a Memorandum of Understanding that will formalise the relationship between both Chambers of Commerce”.
The President encouraged business people to continue to explore all possible ways of doing business with Algeria, whilst urging the authorities to assist the business community on both sides to resolve certain hindrances of smooth trade and investment. She said this whilst reiterating her appeal to see further progress in the discussions to the signing of the Double Taxation Agreement between Algeria and Malta, which is “imperative for the facilitation of collaboration, partnerships and joint ventures between businesses”.
Lastly, the President urged the Algerian Government to further explore the opening of a consular office in Malta, as this “will definitely facilitate travel, trade and investments between two countries”.
Also present for the courtesy call were representatives from TradeMalta led by Mr Anton Buttigieg, Chief Executive Officer, and representatives from the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, led by Mr Anton Borg, President.
Mr Anton Buttigieg, CEO of Trade Malta said that ‘this week’s event marks the third business forum between Maltese and Algerian entrepreneurs in a span of six months. We are very pleased that 120 delegates from 95 Malta-based companies have registered to attend this event.”