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A visit to the Malta Stock Exchange and the Central Bank

Form 5 students' outing

Tue 23 Dec 2008

On 23rd December 2008, the form 5 Business Studies Students visited the Malta Stock Exchange and The Malta Central Bank. The outing started when we went into the coach which was waiting outside the school gate, and headed off to Valletta.

 The coach dropped us off at the Valletta Bus Terminus, so we immediately went through Valletta’s Main Gate and headed to the Malta Stock Exchange. We all entered through a small electric slide door and stayed there while the teachers waited for the representative who was going to show us around. A young lady came and as soon as she welcomed us, we followed, and went down three flights of stairs.

The stairs led us to a room with chairs and a big screen. As one would think, we were shown a presentation. We were also handed out a printed presentation, for those who didn’t want to follow on the screen and to keep for reference. The presentation was very informative, and thanks to it all of us understood what took place at the Malta Stock Exchange, which was something we had already been studying  at school.

As soon as the presentation was over we went out to have a small break at the Upper Barrakka Gardens, which are a stone’s throw away. Everyone had the time for refreshments and to get ready to go to the Malta Central Bank.

We all took off to the Central bank and when we arrived we were welcomed by a security guard who was at the main door. We entered the main building and were asked to sign on the list which contained our names so that the security procedures would be  followed. We were guided through the building by a representative who took us to a room where we were shown a couple of videos about the EU and its main functions and purposes, some history, the current situations and also about the problems faced by the Euro currency. The video also spoke of how Malta was involved in all of this and what the  role of the Central Bank was.

When  the video was over we asked some questions about what we had seen, and all these were fully answered. We then went to the Entrance Hall and we were allowed to look at a vast collection of coins which Malta used throughout its history and some information was given about what we were looking at; of course there were the Maltese Liri and the Euro. The collection we had seen wasn’t complete though, because part of it was on exhibition in Luxemburg, but the part we saw was more than enough.

The outing was a very educational one, and we finally had the chance to visit the places which we had mentioned so oftenduring the Business Studies lesson. I would like to thank the teachers Mr Gordon Baldacchino and Ms Claudia Custo who accompanied us and whoever else helped in this outing.

Isaac Bezzina (Form 5A)