FIMBank’s President participation to the Asia-Europe Business Forum (AEBF)

28.10.2008

Margrith Lütschg-Emmenegger, President of FIMBank

 FIMBank p.l.c., the Malta based Trade Finance institution was a key participant to the 11th edition of the Asia-Europe Business Forum (AEBF), which was held in Beijing from the 21st to the 23rd of October.

The AEBF is part of the official ASEM (the Asia-Europe Meeting) and has been created to strengthen the economic cooperation between the business sectors of Asia and Europe and to formulate business recommendations to be addressed to the governments of the Asian and European countries participating in the ASEM Summit held in Beijing.

Every two years, the AEBF convenes in parallel with the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit and the first edition was organized in Paris in 1996.The Forum involves government officials and business representatives in a direct dialogue with chambers of commerce, business organizations, multinationals and SMEs from 45 ASEM members. 
 
The 11th edition, organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and supported directly by the Ambassador of Malta Mr. Karl Xuereb, was attended by 800 high level business leaders from ASEM countries.  Malta was represented by Margrith Lütschg-Emmenegger, President of FIMBank, who presented a paper on SME and for the first time for Malta chaired one of the five Working Groups which focused on SMEs’ development. Her intervention underlined the necessity to support SMEs with financial instruments like factoring and forfaiting which are ideal solutions for those corporations facing limited access to credit. She further highlighted the importance of introducing factoring companies in China as a specific category of non-banking financial institutions, and offered FIMBank’s expertise in this field to the Chinese government.
 
During her stay in Beijing, Margrith Lütschg-Emmenegger met local firms and potential business partners, as well as the Vice President of China, Shi Jin Ping and the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung. Discussions were held on developing opportunities for Malta and FIMBank Group whose presence in China would further establish it as a global player in the Trade Finance sector and enhance its product range. FIMBank Group is already present in the UK, USA, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, UAE and Singapore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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