ARQ Group, the Malta member firm of Integra International – an association of independent audit, accounting, tax, advisory and legal firms – hosted the association’s annual EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) Regional Chapter conference, welcoming over 40 delegates from member firms across the region and from the US and Asia to the Corinthia Palace Hotel.
Held under the theme ‘The Power of Small’, the conference made the case that scale is not the only measure of strength. As host, ARQ Group used the platform to showcase Malta’s steady economic growth in the face of a challenging socio-economic climate and the external shocks created by current geopolitics, pressures felt across the world, and acutely within the EMEIA region.
The programme featured a varied and engaging line-up of local and international speakers, who explored some of the most consequential issues facing professional firms and their clients today.
Sessions ranged across artificial intelligence and its growing role in professional services; the EU’s new anti-money-laundering package and what it means for compliance; Malta’s ability to attract high-value, low-impact business; and how firms can turn regulatory complexity into a competitive advantage.
Speakers also examined geopolitics and its impact on global business, ESG and the increasingly pressing question of partner succession within professional firms.
Taken together, the sessions reinforced the conference’s central premise, that smaller jurisdictions and firms, by virtue of their agility, focus and depth of expertise, are often best placed to convert today’s complexity and uncertainty into opportunity.
Beyond the technical programme, delegates experienced Malta’s history and character through a series of social events, including a guided tour of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta and a traditional dgħajsa boat tour of the Grand Harbour.
“Size can be both an advantage as well as a disadvantage, however, Malta has time and time again shown that by being agile and resilient, we can take advantage of shifting patterns around us and create opportunities, while larger economies are slow to react,” said David Borg, partner, Tax and Advisory at ARQ Group.
“However, we cannot, as a jurisdiction, allow complacency to set in or measure our future by looking back at past success. Malta is neither a passive object of geopolitics nor a shaper of the global order. It is, however, a strategic navigator. It does not control the sea, but it has been unusually deliberate and skilful about setting its own course across it,” added Borg, who sits on Integra International’s global board and who was reaffirmed as chair of the EMEIA board for a third successive term.
Integra’s Olivier Lefebvre, chairperson of the global board, said: “Integra is all about the power of partnership between the member firms, not only with regards to sharing clients but also knowledge and expertise. We decided to hold this year’s EMEIA conference in Malta because it proves our theme, ‘The Power of Small’, steady, resilient growth, while larger economies absorb one geopolitical shock after another. The message is simple: in an uncertain world, scale is not strength. Agility is.”
