The Minister for Telecommunications Sir Joe Bossano was last week in London participating in a conference on Cyber Security at which he also was a speaker.

The conference was organized by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organizations (CTO).

After the close of the conference the Annual General Meeting of the CTO Council was held were Sir Joe attended as an affiliate member.

This is a new category of membership for the Overseas Territories which Sir Joe has been advocating, for a number of years during which time attendance was on an informal basis.

The Council had accepted the need to give recognition to the Overseas Territories as far back as 2016 but it was only last year at the Cameroon meeting of the Council that the constitution of the CTO was amended to provide for affiliate membership.

Prior to the close of the Council meeting it was decided by unanimity that Sir Joe should engage with the Executive Committee to provide an advisory role on improving the funding of CTO to ensure financial stability.

This relationship will not be remunerated and it will only require Sir Joe to go to London for one day twice a year when the Executive Committee meets to discuss potential revenue opportunities for the CTO.

Whilst in London Sir Joe Bossano was invited to a dinner organized to promote Gibraltar’s potential as a jurisdiction for inward investment.

Sir Joe explained the advantages that Gibraltar has for potential investors and gave details of its international trading success currently, as well as other statistics relating to its economic performance.

The dinner was organized and hosted by Alan Donnelly who is a former Labour MEP and trade unionist and a close personal friend of Sir Joe. He is currently also the chairman of Sovereign Strategy. The Government wishes to express its appreciation for this support by Alan Donnelly who is a committed friend of Gibraltar.

The event was attended by the following:

• Shadow Minister for Defence Procurement
• The Labour Chief Whip of The House of Lords
• The Chairman of Sovereign Strategy
• Strategic Business Advisory
• The Deputy Chairman, Policy of The City of London Corporation
• The Ambassador of Kuwait
• The Deputy Ambassador; Japan
• First Secretary for the Embassy of Bahrain
• CEO for Milou Property Ltd
• CEO for Sovereign Strategy
• The CEO for Baleana Company
• The Director for the National Bank of Kuwait
• CEO for Trust Reservation
• CEO for Melius Group
• The Chairman for Hey Bulldog
• CEO for Tanto Capital
• Chief Commercial Officer

This event was at no cost to the Gibraltar Government.