World Trade Center Gibraltar hosted a networking event last week with over 225 of Gibraltar’s key decision makers to outline the attractive conditions that the Rock offers to new and existing businesses as well as to identify where economic growth will be coming from, in 2020.

The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, addressed the audience gathered in the World Trade Center to set the scene, enforcing the strategic position that Gibraltar occupies and the benefits that the Rock can offer, specifically in the FinTech and Services sectors.

Peter Howitt, an industry expert in Fintech and Sam Buxton, an equivalent expert in Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) also gave sharp, snapshot speeches focusing on areas where Gibraltar can not only see continued economic growth, but also procure a greater global market share. Such target industries included those of cryptocurrency and DLT, FinTech, banking and the insurance markets. Skilled people and appropriate regulation emerged as the key ingredients to growing these sectors.

After establishing itself as ‘the’ global destination address for online gaming, Gibraltar now also appears to be positioning towards the FinTech and specialist tech markets. Gregory Butcher, CEO for Fairhomes Group, the company that developed and operates World Trade Center Gibraltar, was both optimistic and cautious, outlining that Gibraltar is in a prime position to capitalise on significant opportunities, but needed to compete like never before, against a global array of business locations such as Malta, Estonia, Dublin and even London. He advised that feedback from recent meetings with many CEOs and COOs of major gaming and insurance companies in Gibraltar indicated that acute skills shortages of specific types of IT personnel exist in Gibraltar. These shortages are preventing existing corporates from fully utilising Gibraltar as their base to expand into new territories.

For many of these companies, the tried and tested business models that have excelled in existing markets are now being positioned towards new and emerging markets, but it has been increasingly evident that skills shortages are presenting challenges to accommodating the full growth potential of these sectors, in Gibraltar.

The wide consensus on the evening was that addressing and solving these skills shortages of Tech talent would unlock significant additional economic growth in 2020 and moreover, these benefits would be enjoyed here, in Gibraltar.