NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF MALTA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
Press Release
BIO/3236
NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF MALTA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
19990730 Biographical Note(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Office.)
Walter Balzan, the new Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations, today presented his credentials to Secretary- General Kofi Annan.
Since October 1998, and also in the period 1990 to 1993, Mr. Balzan has served as personal aide to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta, Guido de Marco, and as Head of the Minister's Cabinet. From 1993 to 1996, he was Malta's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Concurrently, in the period 1994 to 1996, he served as Consul- General of Malta in New York.
Mr. Balzan was a member of the Maltese delegation at the summit meetings in Paris (1990) and Helsinki (1992) of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). In 1992-1993 he was elected Rapporteur of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) at the forty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly. In 1990-1991 he was a member of the Cabinet of the President of the forty-fifth session of the Assembly, Guido de Marco.
During the period 1987 to 1990, Balzan served as personal aide to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior and Justice of Malta and Secretary of the Airport Security Committee of the Directorate for Civil Aviation, and represented Malta as its Permanent Representative at the Council of Europe on the Open Partial Agreement on the Prevention of, Protection Against and Organization of Relief in Major Natural and Technological Disasters.
Mr. Balzan joined the Maltese Civil Service in 1964 and served in the ministries of Industrial Development and Tourism, Trade and Industry, and Finance. He also served as a Government- appointed member on the Boards of Directors of Maritim Selmun Palace Hotel (1987-1992) and of Malta Export Trade Corporation Ltd. (1992-1993).
Mr. Balzan was educated at The Lyceum in Malta. His areas of specialization include international relations, commerce and finance. In 1995 he was decorated by Pope John Paul II with the award Cavaliere dell'Ordine di San Gregorio Magno.
Mr. Balzan was born in Malta in 1946. He is married and has two children. * *** *