Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1161128
29.08.19 2 FROM PAGE 1 When the company started its Maltese operation in October last year, Coinone's CEO Cha Myng-hoon told South Kore- an daily e Korea Herald that CGEX would be striving "to become a major global trading site" which would provide a "distinguished exchange experience for users." Following the news of its closure, how- ever, Schembri said that one should not focus only on individual companies when evaluating the blockchain sector in Malta. "is is a whole ecosystem which forms a chain - you can't only look at a small section of this sector," he said, "[…] ere are other companies which use this tech- nology which are now looking at Malta." Man on the street to reap benefits of blockchain On the subject of cryptocurrencies, Schembri said that since Malta had es- tablished a legislative framework for the sector, a number of Virtual Financial As- sets (VFA) agents had been set up. "is came about after a long process which included a verification process for players who were interested to enter the Maltese market as VFA agents," he said, "VFA agents are the gatekeepers who will be processing the applications of companies interested in working in the cryptocurrencies sector in Malta." He noted that over 700 companies had presented a notification to the Malta Financial Services Authority that they would like to operate from Malta, open- ing the doors for them to submit a formal application for a licence. is, however, didn't mean that they would all be grant- ed a licence, since the government had put in place strict requirement which had to be met before being allowed to set up shop locally. "…e government's target is to attract the best companies in the sector. As with any new sector, there will be players who are only out to make a quick buck and have bad intentions. erefore, the government set the bar very high, and is sometimes criticised for demanding very high levels," he said. "[e government] wants to ensure that the best companies are brought to Malta. We are in fact being compared favourably with other countries, who have decided to set their bar lower than Malta. For instance, one country in Europe has set its minimum capital requirement at €2,500 for each compa- ny. is contrasts with the situation in Malta, where the minimum capital re- quirement is of €750,000. So, the degree of seriousness in our legislation is at a whole other level." Asked how the man on the street would ultimately be benefitting from block- chain, Schembri said that new services would be offered to citizens which would be enabled by the new technology. ese, he said, included services such as quicker money transfers through eliminating third parties as well as much lower transfer and payment ser- vices fees. "Moreover, blockchain will also provide more tangible benefits, such as by allow- ing students' examination certificates to be made available on the blockchain. is means that whenever the student needs to present that certificate, no mat- ter how far in the future, it will be readily available on the blockchain and accessi- ble through a simple app." It will also provide for more transpar- ency in different sectors, he underscored. "Recently, for instance, a tender was is- sued for the setting up of a rent registry. All rent contracts will be available on the blockchain, making it impossible for rents not to be registered." "And by the end of the year, the compa- ny registry will switch completely to the blockchain and to artificial intelligence, enabling anyone who wants to open a company to do so from the comfort of their home, 24 hours a day." Schembri added that a registry of lands and planning permits were amongst oth- er services which were on the cards for being placed on the blockchain. 'Blockchain will provide tangible benefits' PKF Malta is organising its seventh bitpod educational webinar on the strength of the previous six sessions held over the past months and which have proven to be popular especially amongst industry professionals. e next session will be held on 4 September 2019 at 11am and will be a sequel to PKF Malta's fifth session, fea- turing Dr Vince Vella, CTO of Com- putime Software, BRSAnalytics and CTLabs. e title of the session will be "Trans- action Monitoring and Learning to Slow Dance with Machines – Part II" and will be facilitated by Dr Mar- ilyn Formosa, Head of Legal at PKF Malta. e webinar will follow up on the theme of the first session but will go deeper into specific Anti-Money Laundering (AML)-related machine learning user cases. Besides his business interests, Vella is also a lecturer within the Department of Artificial Intelligence at University of Malta, mainly responsible for the MSc AI – Fintech stream. His main ar- eas revolve primarily around Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Computational Finance, particular- ly in the areas of AI Managed Funds, decentralized AI utilizing smart con- tracts and regulatory frameworks such as AML. e bitpod webinar will be accessible either through PKF Malta's website via this link: http://bit.ly/30yQzvw or through the firm's Youtube channel via livestream. bitpod's founding members are George Mangion, Senior Partner at PKF Malta and Dr Marilyn Formosa, Head of Legal at the firm. In past bitpod webinars, various topics were tackled such as AML, fraud detection, Know Your Customer (KYC) and the aforementioned block- chain technology. Anyone who has a topic of interest you want to discuss kindly contact Dr Formosa on mari- lyn.formosa@pkfmalta.com PKF Malta is a fast growing, progres- sive firm that is a member of PKF In- ternational, a network of independent firms of accountant and business advi- sors with more than 440 offices in over 100 countries. PKF Malta's bitpod educational webinar on AML and AI Mohamed Dau has been appointed as the new Managing Director at Mediterranean Aviation Co. Ltd., better known as Medavia. This appointment came into effect on 24 July 2019. Dau brings valuable aviation experience to Medavia from his previous appointments at Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Libyan Airlines besides the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority. He succeeds Rammah Ettir who led the Company over the past five years and steered it through continued growth in all the areas of operation, primarily the aircraft charter business and ground handling as well as the MRO business. This area of business registered the biggest growth for the Company, achieving added aircraft approvals for the MRO and widening the customer base. Medavia has new Managing Director PKF Malta's Dr Marilyn Formosa (right) together with Adrian Kreter, founder of Instacoins, during the sixth bitpod webinar held in July