MONACO UNIQUENESS

by Eleonora Pedron with the Team

MONACO.In Monaco you feel every day that you are living in a monarchy, as if you were a 19th-century citizen! Monaco poses as a small town from the olden days. You pass dinky little shops, children playing unaccompanied on the beach, billionaires and celebrities jogging on the quiet, recently inaugurated new trail. Stopping at an estate agent’s window, tourists gawp at prices. A large flat overlooking the port costs €17.8m – although that’s nothing compared with the Tour Odéon penthouse sold here recently by the British Candy brothers for €240m, the world’s record price for a private home.

Monaco’s house prices are the world’s highest. No wonder, with so many multimillionaires packed into a country smaller than New York’s Central Park. MTC, the monthly magazine that we distribute gratis, wrote articles about yachts, cars and…private planes that worth millions of euros. Overseeing the show is the Monegasques beloved Sovereign, HSH Prince Albert II. Being a tax haven was very embarrassing, so Albert oversaw Monaco’s response to the G20.  As the Great Recession lifts, in Monaco the trend of recent decades in western countries continues. Walking Monaco’s streets, you can have the middle-class life feeling that the tiny state for rich people is the global future… “The rock”, as locals call it, is no more “a sunny place for shady people”, as the writer Somerset Maugham put it. …”  Monaco’s one of the main task is that of promoting and fostering international cooperation in the field of scientific and technological research. In these areas, the rich principality of Monaco is at the forefront also with sustainability, in cases of humanitarian emergencies and ecology. It would seem that nothing is missing in Monaco to continue to be the coveted Eden, created from the roaring fifties by its clairvoyant Sovereign HSH Prince Rainier III. Today, Monaco must compete with numerous other heavens on earth, which since ten years are becoming more and more available, attractive and easily accessible, like i.e. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha. Monaco needs rich residents and also needs to improve the economic relations with the countries of accreditation, identifying investment opportunities for its businesses. Monaco must enhance and promote cultural and scientific relations, through festivals, exhibitions, meetings and round tables. The goal is also for Monegasque companies to have easier access to the European single market as the Minister of Finance and Economy of Monaco Jean Castellini said. “…Monaco is not a member of the European Union or the Schengen Area, but it is part of the Eurozone. Monaco does not wish to join the European Union, but the Government has started negotiations with Brussels to facilitate economic exchanges by improving access to the EU’s internal market. However, there are specific issues such as the ability to control the settlement of private individuals in the country, the issuing of permits to non-Monegasques to set up businesses, and priority employment rights for Monegasques. These rules, which are not in line with the principles of the European Union, are essential to Monaco. Without these rules, Monaco would not have its own economy. Monaco is a real country, with a real population and a real economy, made up of companies and jobs, which benefit neighbouring countries. The challenge in the discussions with the European Union involves demonstrating that to survive, Monaco must be able to retain the features which make it unique, and that Monaco is useful to Europe, since Europe’s future does not lie in standardization. The issues are important. This will be a lengthy process which will no doubt take several years.”

For more info about the Minister of Finance and Economy of Monaco Jean Castellini point of view about Monaco honing in at how science, technology, innovation and the potential of culture can help boost efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, while promoting sustainable development, click http://fr.southsouthnews.com/special-coverage/cifa-2013/category/74 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KImvdERZcOc