Deloitte senior partner takes positive view on Rock’s post-Brexit future

Deloitte Gibraltar handled more new business in the six months after the Brexit referendum than in the lead-up to the vote last June, the firm’s chairman and senior partner said in an interview.
Joseph Caruana told B2B, the in-house magazine of the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce, that the Rock was well-placed to face the challenges of Brexit and could act as a gateway to the UK for EU businesses.
“After the referendum I was initially as horrified as everyone else was as it is not what we would have wished for,” he said.
“I suppose it does mark significant change, but with change come new opportunities and it is ironic that in our trading since the referendum, we have seen more new business coming into Gibraltar in the six months post Brexit than we did in the period leading up to it.”
Mr Caruana told the Chamber magazine he was confident Gibraltar would also be able to develop new niches in financial services.
In that respect he welcomed the fact that the Gibraltar Government was “regularising our relation with the UK”, which he described as being “of paramount importance”.
He also highlighted other key selling points including Gibraltar’s low tax framework, good schooling and “fantastic” community spirit.
Mr Caruana was also positive about the border, despite the fact that ensuring frontier fluidity post-Brexit has been identified as one of the biggest potential challenges ahead.
While he acknowledged that the border was “the big unknown”, he remained confident that the inter dependence between the Campo de Gibraltar and Gibraltar - and the jobs at stake - will mean a closed border will not happen.
“What we might have are slightly increased controls at the border, but ones which will allow workers still to come and go,” Mr Caruana told the business magazine.
“Therefore I am confident that a solution will be found that will be for the mutual benefit of all, and one that will enable Gibraltar to move forward.”