Commonwealth People's Forum

Gibraltar's economic success is such that if it were a completely independent and sovereign state it would have the twelfth highest GDP of any of the world's countries.

Chief Minister Peter Caruana claimed in an address to the Commonwealth People's Forum held in Malta recently.

In a significant speoch — which has received virtually no attention locallv — Caruana urged greater cooperation between Malta, Cy prus and Gibraltar which he de scribed as the three "Mediterranean rim" countries.

The Chief Minister's visit was the first to the George Cross island from where his ancestors came to settle on the Rock. And he was clearly as impressed by Malta as it was by Caruana whose speech was extensively reported in the Maltese press and where he was entertained by both the island's President and Prime Minister.

Global,regional and other group ings of countries were almost al ways advantageous to small coun tries, Caruana told the conference ofCommonwealth representatives. "Thev tend to rebalance the natu ral disadvantage of small size and thus level the playing field to our advantage—notjust politically, but economically as well," he said. "The political advantages are clear — a meaningful stake in regional and global decision-making and consensus forming processes. These political advantages are im mediate and automatic. The eco nomic advantages arc perhaps greater still, but need to be nurtured and exploited. They do not endure automatically.They do not happen by themselves. They have to be seized through effective execution of carefully laid plans and policies.

Caruana said he was more inter ested in how common links, over laps and bridges between Com- Chief Minister the monwealth, European and Medi terranean countries can be of help to countries from all of them, than on comparative advantages be tween them.

"How can we help each other overcome our disadvantages and share our advantages to mutual benefit?" he asked.

"Consider that there are three countries taking part in this forum, Malta, Cyprus and Gibraltar, that are part of all three of the Common wealth, the European Union and the Mediterranean rim. Let's call our-selves "bridge countries". The economic scope and potential is huge for bridge countries to assist others to exploit the economic op portunities offered by the blocs or groupings to which the bridge country but not the other belongs."

Commonwealth countries had the advantage of tending to have similar commercial law, legal and judicial systems, political and ad ministrative decision-making proc esses and commercial ethos. "We tend to be Anglophone," he added.

"These factors(which we might call our'Commonwealth heritage') make it particularly attractive and reassuring for our business people to do business with each other and, equally important, through each other with regional third parties. EU countries enjoy the advantage of harmonised trade regimes, singlemarkets and market access rights. Mediterranean rim countries enjoy cultural and historical links, and relationships that enable us to understand each other and how we do things perhaps better than peo ple from further away might under stand."

Putting all of these together "which is what we 'bridge coun tries' that are in all three categories the EU, Mediterranean, and Com monwealth offer" — and the busi ness opportunities became obvious. Businesses and companies in nonMediterranean or Commonwealth countries which were not in the EU, could,through the establishment of businesses in the bridge countries, obtain access to EU markets for their capital, services and goods, while dealing in a language (Eng lish) with which they were famil iar, as well as laws, legal, political and administrative systems with which they would be familiar and advised by professionals,law yers, accountants, banks and oth ers — which operate more or less like the ones at home.

"The reverse is true as well. EU companies can similarly, and with similar benefits, better exploit and structure business opportunities in Commonwealth countries and nonEU Mediterranean. Taking advan tage of the better cultural and sys temic experience and understand ing that bridge countries have of commonwealth countries."

The permutations were almost endless, he added. And the scope for enhanced business opportunity through intra- and inter-regional, and global, networking and part nerships considerable.

"These thoughts are not just theoretical. They are real. They are already real to many international businesses which are already tak ing advantage of these ver\' same advantages in my small country to bridge between regional and cul tural blocs, and between different politico-legal systems, and thus to better and more safely exploit busi ness opportunities within a particu lar region of which thev are not a part. And this bridging of the one country's disadvantages and an other countries' advantages pro vides economic benefits to both.

Consider our recent experience in Gibraltar. We are not a sovereign independent state. We are a selfgoverning,self-legislating and eco nomically self-sufficient UK over seas territory.

"Yet, because we are in continen tal Europe and the UK is responsi ble for our external affairs, we are part of the EU and benefit from EU legal regimes and market access rights. This combination has ena bled us to take full advantage of the economic opportunities available from EU membership, Common wealth and Mediterranean rim membership. It has enabled us to construct a vibrant,and prosperous economy precisely by exploiting our status as a "bridge country" into the EU markets, and bv com bining our Commonwealth herit age {legal systems, laws, political and administration systems) with our physical location in the Medi terranean to exploit the huge inter national inward investment into the Mediterranean rim, particularly in the sectors of tourism, real estate, shipping and financial servicessec tors."

Non-EU companies gain access to the EU through business estab lished in and through Gibraltar. Il lustrating that"this bridging works in practice",Caruana pointed out that though Gibraltar was "a very small country — only 8sq.km with a population ofonly 30,000 people" yet it had a GDP of nearlv £600 mil lion and, if an independent coun try would have the 12th highest GDP per capita in the world.

"We receive seven million visi tors a year. We are the Mediterra nean's largest ship bunkering and ship re-provisioning port. We are probably the world's leading online gaming jurisdiction and we have a prosperous and growing interna tional finance centre. Manv interna tional companies are organising much cross border, international trade and business, particularly into Europe, from a Gibraltar, fiscally competitive, base," he said.