Fenlex Corporate Services Ltd. will be exhibiting at the European iGaming Congress & Expo (EIG) between the 19th and 21st October 2010 at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen. The EiG attracts attendees from all areas of online gaming, from the most senior management to specialists in areas as diverse as iGaming law, regulation, finance, marketing, business development, fraud, payments and IT. In 2009, over 1500 people from over 60 countries attended the event.

Managing websites in different languages and teams that provide customer support in their respective mother tongue are standard for most online gaming operators. And whereas the term localization is usually applied to translations and software adaptation, it could soon mean more. (Article appeared in iGaming Business Magazine, July 2010)

Malta and Uruguay have concluded negotiations on a double taxation agreement (DTA) between the two countries, which is expected to be signed later on this year. This announcement assumes particular importance in consideration of the fact that despite Malta’s extensive tax treaty network of over fifty agreements, so far, it has not yet signed a double taxation agreement with any South American country.

Malta and Serbia signed an investment guarantee agreement. The agreement is meant to promote investment flow between the 2 countries, and provides a legal framework that sets norms and protection for investing in the respective countries. The double taxation agreement which the two countries signed last year had just gone into force on June 16 2010. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Tonio Borg said that this will continue to strengthen bilateral ties and improve economic and trade relations.

Fenlex is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Karl Diacono, the firm’s CEO, sums up the main developments which have helped shape the company’s success over the past decade.

The Minister of Finance, the Economy and Investment Tonio Fenech and the German Ambassador to Malta Bernd Braun have signed a protocol amending the agreement on the avoidance of double taxation which is intended to bring the existing agreement in line with current international standards concerning effective exchange of information and transparency. 

Trade between Malta and China has increased by some 140 per cent over the past four years. Despite the financial crisis, Malta was also the only EU country that experienced an increase in trade with China last year. An increase of almost 10% said Malta’s ambassador to China Karl Xuereb during a visit by the president of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise Helga Ellul to the vice-chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Yu Ping. Both sides discussed further cooperation and the strengthening of their ties. The visit took place during the last day of the Malta Enterprise trade delegation in Beijing.

Despite the global recession, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) registered 2,612 new companies in addition to 66 commercial partnerships in 2009, bringing the total to 2,678 new registrations. The total number of companies on the register as at end December 2009 stood at 48,520 companies (2008: 45,975). “Given the turmoil that followed the worldwide financial crisis, the performance of Malta’s financial services sector in 2009 can be described as extremely good”, pointed out MFSA’s chairman, Professor Joe Bannister, in the Annual Report 2009 which was recently published.

Malta and Croatia can significantly improve their trade relations and create new opportunities for investment between both countries, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tonio Borg said.

Karl Diacono, Managing Director of Fenlex, looks at the state of online gaming licensing in Malta (article appeared in iGaming Business Jan/Feb 2010).

Malta’s Remote Gaming Regulation 2004 is due for updating. In fact it is known that the Regulation in the current form is somewhat weak in that, in many areas, it is open to interpretation or does not give operators or the authority itself, clear cut answers in a number of areas. It is also known that the regulator is not too happy with the current state of affairs but has been too busy solving the big issue that cropped up this year when Maltese villages where invaded by gaming shops packed with gaming machinery that was not regulated. This problem is now solved with new legislation in place regulating these onshore operations. The next big project, after the LGA settles into its spanking new offices, should be updating the current remote gaming regulations.