There has been a continuation of growth in the Principality’s budget surplus, thanks to a marked increase in revenues and lower growth in expenditures, including ordinary expenses, Jean Castellini, Minister of Finance and Economy, told the press on Tuesday.
Providing an update on the results of the financial year 2016, and the draft budget for 2017, Minister Castellini said that the fiscal year 2016 had a surplus of €35,866,124, an increase of 22 percent compared to 2015. This outstanding result followed four previous years of budget surplus.
In more detail, the increase in tax revenues in 2016 (+ €45.4 million, or + 5.2 percent) was due mainly to higher revenue from transfer taxes (+€20 million) and VAT, which means that the Government’s attractiveness policy continues to bear fruit. There was also an increase in revenue from civil administrative fees (+ €4.5 million), customs duties (+€4 million) and mortgage fees (+€2 million) as well as that related to taxes on insurance (+€1 million).
Meanwhile, the draft budget for 2017, as voted by the National Council on December 15, 2016, was drawn up on a prudent basis, he said.
It has a projected surplus of revenue of €6.3 million compared to €5.8 million in the draft budget for 2016. This budget presents a forecast of revenue of €1,210,318,900, up +by 5.9 percent compared to the draft budget for 2016.
The minister added that at the end of March, 2017, tax revenues and income from tourism are in line with forecasts.
An international multidisciplinary symposium on the role of the oceans in CO2 mitigation has been held as part of Monaco Ocean Week, with the support of the Prince Albert II Foundation and Solas (Safety of Life at Sea).
Dr Nathalie Hilmi, a specialist in Environmental Economics at the Monaco Scientific Centre (CSM) co-organised the event with Dr Christa Marandino of the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Oceanic Research in Kiel, and Erik Van Doorn of Kiel’s Christian-Albrechts University.
The objective was to carry out an analysis of “Blue Carbon” at the boundaries of the natural and social sciences with an interface with policy makers and stakeholders. The added value has been to associate different disciplines in order to carry out research on this societally relevant subject, largely unexplored to date. The results will be summarised for policy makers and an article to be submitted to a special issue of Frontiers in Marine Science, entitled “The role of the ocean in mitigating CO2.”
Blue Carbon is defined as any carbon stored in the marine domain by processes whose absence would eventually lead to an equivalent amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, taking into account equilibrium absorption or emission associated with other climatic agents. This is why the role of the ocean is crucial in CO2 mitigation: ocean systems (including coastal areas) naturally absorb carbon, but many of these natural processes are disrupted by human activities (coastal development, global warming …) with implications for future storage capacity.
The economic assessment will take into account ecosystem services in coastal, continental shelf and open ocean areas to link them to financial instruments and mechanisms to motivate positive actions and interventions according to regional differences. Governance and legal issues ensure that nation-states benefit from economic mechanisms.
Scorpio Bulkers Inc, which has its principal executive office in Monaco, announced on Tuesday, April 18, that it has entered into agreements with unaffiliated third parties to sell the SBI Charleston and SBI Cakewalk, two 2014 built Kamsarmax vessels, for approximately $45 (€42) million in total.
Scorpio Bulkers Inc is a provider of marine transportation of dry bulk commodities. Upon completion of the sales, Scorpio Bulkers Inc will own 46 vessels, consisting of 18 Kamsarmax vessels and 28 Ultramax vessels. The company also time-charters in one dry bulk Kamsarmax vessel. The owned fleet will have a total carrying capacity of approximately 3.2 million deadweight tonnes.
Scorpio Bulkers was incorporated in the Republic of the Marshall Islands on March 20, 2013.
According to the latest poll by Kantar Sofres OnePoint for LCI, RTL and Le Figaro, the candidate of the centre-right, François Fillon is in third place at 18.5 percent, behind Emmanuel Macron (24 percent) and Marine Le Pen (23 percent), five days before the first round of the French presidential election.
The respected right-of-centre daily said that the poll result testifies to the uncertainties still plaguing the elections.
The survey showed that François Fillon has picked up 1.5 percent over the last two weeks, regaining the third position he lost to left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, now on 18 percent, suggesting that support for the former Socialist minister has reached a plateau.
The result that markets and investors have feared most, a run-off between Le Pen and Melanchon, appears to be receding, according to the poll. France votes in the first round on Sunday, April 23, with the second-round run-off between the top two candidates two weeks later, on May 7.
Two 17-year-old African migrants were electrocuted and seriously injured while hiding on a TGV train in Nice on Monday evening.
The youths, from Guinea-Conakry, were discovered shortly after 10:30 pm, at the Saint Roch freight station in Nice, having travelled from Ventimiglia hidden between the engine and the first coach before climbing onto the roof of the train.
One was very badly burned in the legs, while the other escaped with less serious injuries. They were taken to Pasteur Hospital.
Last February, the body of a man was found at Cannes La Bocca station. He had also arrived from Ventimiglia and was electrocuted while holding on to the pantograph.
Coach Diego Nargiso, of the International Tennis Academy, with Giuseppe Ambrosio, President Monaco Single and Multi-Family Office International Association
ML: Can you tell us about your Italian and American background, and how you came to be such a known figure in Monaco? GA: I was born in Naples, and I grew up in the outskirts between Naples and Caserta, a very poor area and very different from Monaco. It’s an area where people and families struggle to reach the end of the month with enough money in their pockets. After two summer study holidays spent in England, I found out about the possibility to spend an entire year abroad with a host family in the US. After all the tests and paperwork, the most difficult thing was to convince my parents to let me go. I was 16 when I left. I made the most of my year and I fully caught the American spirit. I played sports – football and tennis in high school – but also I managed to earn a general diploma.
I came back when I was 17. My year in the US was a non-stop series of mind-blowing experiences that changed my personality and my life forever. Once back in Naples, I swept through university as I was eager to start working. When I arrived in Monaco in 2007, I invested my time in not-for-profit associations within the Italian and British communities, and I never said no to requests for help and advice. I think this made a difference with other professionals that seem obsessed with making more and more money, and their egos. Funny enough, even though I am very well known in Monaco, Italy and the UK, I am less and less known as Giuseppe Ambrosio but rather as the Eye Doctor’s husband, as my wife took up a local eye doctor practice three years ago.
ML: How did you become interested in accounting and numbers? GA: By chance, right after university I applied to Arthur Andersen and Price Waterhouse, which later became PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). I was supposed to join the financial services division in Rome of Arthur Andersen, however, due to an employment letter that was delivered to me a month too late, I ended up in PwC. The Big Four is a tough place to start, but I was lucky that I was the only one that could speak foreign languages fluently, including, of course, English. This fast-tracked me on the road to partner and drove me to a three-year secondment in the UK as manager, then Madrid as Senior Manager and then Monaco where I have been living for the last ten years. Accounting can be fun if it’s done in so many different countries … I never really had a chance to be bored as I was too busy finding ways to survive professionally in a new environment.
ML: You are involved in many key Monaco projects – the Gala de L’Art de Monte Carlo, Business Tourism, ICAEW, AIIM, Forum of made in Italy, and Monaco Private Label Trusted Advisor, and, last but not least the Monaco Single and Multi-Family office international Association as president elect. Can you tell us briefly about your role?
GA: It’s true that I get asked by lots of entrepreneurs about Monaco and how it works on a regular basis, in particular UK and Italian companies are very interested and curious. I am invited to, and involved in lots of initiatives either because of my professional background, I was actually asked to act as treasurer, or simply because they target indirectly my solid personal and professional network developed in twenty years of work around Europe. In other words, by involving me indirectly they access also my friends and clients, including the wealthiest Italian and British families I work with.
ML: What is the secret of your success, both professionally and personally? Where did you learn your most valuable life lessons? GA: It’s really difficult for me to say. Maybe the secret of my success is that I have lived and worked in many foreign countries and every single one has taught me something. Germany: hard work; the US: competition; Italy: passion; UK: professionalism; Spain: determination, Monaco: importance of non-profits.
I landed in Monaco with a unique professional path and skills that made me very quickly well known and locally appreciated. The rest is no secret, just hard work and preparation.
Giuseppe Ambrosio, right, at MCCC central court with tennis icon Nicola “Nicky” Pietrangeli
ML: How does sport play into your life? What does sport, and specifically, tennis mean to Monaco? GA: I wish I could do more sport. At the moment, I can manage only a couple of hours of quality tennis with my tennis coach. This is a religious and cathartic moment for me, it contributes to detoxing my mind and body from stress. Tennis is physical and technical at the same time, and it’s the only thing that makes me tick – apparently, the only way that I can get some exercise is to chase that yellow ball! I love team sports as well, for example, football, but I stopped playing while I was in the UK when I realised that every single time I played I increased the risk of getting injured, especially during impromptu matches with friends – and without a referee. In fact, unless you are bleeding or lying on the ground with broken bones, the Brits do not consider it worth stopping, and concede a free kick.
ML: How are you involved with tennis? GA: Well, I play most of the time with my personal tennis coach but I have played with the same person for the last ten years at Monaco Tennis Club, Arnoud Zaragoza. I always want to make the most of my little free time. In the summer, I have another coach and next year I will have played 25 years with the same person. Lello Fusco, an icon in Naples, he will be 68 next year.
I have also been professionally involved with a few tennis players as their professional advisor, which is why I appear to have a strong link with the tennis world.
ML: What are your aspirations for the future? GA: Be there for my children, help others, help young people find their way, help more and more not-for- profit activities and clubs. I’d also like to develop the associations on which I hold board positions, or where I am President, for example, the Monaco Single and Multi-Family Office International Association. Money is important but it can’t buy you happiness. The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity. Aim for the stars, you might hit a treetop. I hit mine in Monaco.
Article first published April 17, 2017.
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Two 17-year-old African migrants were electrocuted and seriously injured while hiding on a TGV train in Nice on Monday evening.
