25-31 October 2000

EURO INFO In Focus: Vilhena Funds AGM "Assets under management in the Vilhena Funds SICAV plc. have increased by an impressive 42% from Lm36.19 million as at 30 June 1999 to Lm5l.58 million as at 30 June 2000. The number of shareholders has tipped the 3,500 mark." Chairman Dr Remigio Zammit Pace announced during Vilhena Funds’ Annual General Meeting. FEXCO Investment Services launched amid expanding industry FEXCO Investment Services (Malta) Limited was recently launched. The company has been licensed to conduct Investment Services business by the Malta Financial Services Centre. At a reception Finance Minister John Dalli welcomed this new initiative by FEXCO Investment Services (Malta) Limited.			Rinella movie park post mortem needed Rinella Movie Park may have managed to keep open if tour operators had lent a helping hand, according to the Director General of the Association of General Retailers and Traders. The German-owned theme park will be closing its doors for the last time on Sunday, bringing job losses of about 34. Only the theme park’s two restaurants ‘Tombstone’ and ‘Jumanji’, will remain open. Vince Farrugia said that he was very saddened to see such a business leave the local industry. "The Rinella Movie Park was a prime example of tourism investment opportunities geographically spread around the island," he said. "Unfortunately. most local tour operators and guides take tourists to places where it is more lucrative for them, rather than locations that would be more pleasant for our visitors, often denying them the chance to see the beauty of our smaller towns, villages and country-side." Mr Farrugia said that investors were facing a "massive brick wall", especially since many new investments in tourist facilities depend on the willingness of internal tourist operators to visit specialist places, as diverse as the Lascaris War Rooms or Popeye’s Village. He added that Rinella Movie Park integrated tourism, history and entertainment, ideal to attract a niche market to Cottonera, which is set to become a new tourist area. "Investors must be brought in to open up non-traditional tourist areas and help spread the industry across the island as a whole, not just keep it fixed in the better-known spots," he said. He also pointed out that foreign direct investors needed to be encouraged, adding that lessons needed to be learned from the Rinella Movie Park story. "The problems foreign investors are facing must be digested and analysed, even more so, when it comes to areas which have not yet been tapped," he said.

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Editor: Saviour Balzan
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