Comments on: The Economist Group is to hold a conference in Malta in March

By: janeff

janeff — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 15:16:28 +0000

In reply to gigi. He could not find one single employer in Malta who is planning expansion. So he went over to Gozo. Who knows. Maybe the caper factory will be resuscitated.

By: Rumplestiltskin

Rumplestiltskin — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 09:25:27 +0000

In reply to Victor.

“It is important that Malta punches above its weight.”

Labour seems to have understood: “It is important that Malta punches below the belt.”

By: M.

M. — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 19:22:33 +0000

In reply to Nik. I doubt it. Rest assured that, had any of them been, the fact would have been trumpeted on every news broadcast since. I have no doubt that the only reason Muscat was present at the World Economic Forum in China last summer was because he was invited by the Chinese government, not by Klaus Schuab.

By: Matthew S

Matthew S — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 13:43:09 +0000

Now that the government has found a new appreciation for The Economist Group (it was boasting about this conference on TVM yesterday), let’s ask Joseph Muscat what he thinks of this week’s edition of The Economist. The cover says it all.

http://www.economist.com/printedition/covers/2014-01-23/ap-e-eu-la-me-na-uk

By: Gahan

Gahan — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 00:47:37 +0000

Conferences, speakers, CHOGM, Marseilles bla, bla bla. Where’s the beef?

What new employment opportunities will be created by these Machiavellian attention-seekers?

Army personnel, police and civil servants, will work overtime. Taxi drivers and garages will earn some more money and our hotels will be full of VIPs enjoying freebies while riding piggyback on their countrymen.

And that’s about it. Then what?

By: Victor

Victor — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 00:17:22 +0000

I wonder whether all the elves writing on the timesofmalta.com comments board, and the Labour media for that matter, have truly understood and analysed the comment made by Mr Andrews:

“It is important that Malta punches above its weight,” he said adding that it seems that it had done so having come out of the financial crisis practically unscathed. “This is a tribute,” he said.

The conference, Mr Andrews said, would serve for others to learn from Malta’s experience and for Malta to learn from others.

Do they realise that this tribute is due to the previous administration?

Unfortunately we will not be hearing or receiving favourable comments about Malta for long. As we have been seeing. It is the contrary.

By: P Shaw

P Shaw — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 00:06:03 +0000

In the current edition of The Economist: Siphoning off China’s wealth A prominent political campaigner, Xu Zhiyong, went on trial in China, charged with “gathering crowds to disrupt public order”. He is one of several to be tried this week from an activist group that has argued for the public disclosure of official assets. A report, based on leaked documents from firms that set up offshore companies and accounts, accused China’s elite of establishing many such vehicles in tax havens abroad.

By: P Shaw

P Shaw — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 00:02:29 +0000

The cover page for the Economist edition Jan 25 – 31, 2014 is “China loses its allure”.

By: ciccio

ciccio — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 22:45:51 +0000

In reply to random. Another speaker is Lord Peter Mandelson. Enough said - and I must clarify that I am speaking on a political level only here.

By: random

random — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 21:08:51 +0000

One of the speakers at this conference will be the disgraced former BP CEO Tony Hayward, who was responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

No one in the USA or EU wants to touch Tony Hayward with a barge pole, except Malta’s Labour government which is boasting about his connection with Malta. In fact, Tony Hayward as CEO of Genel Energy will be responsible for the drilling of a well south of Malta under Maltese licence.

Let’s hope he won’t leave the mess he left in the Gulf of Mexico.