Muscat pitches Malta as ‘natural citizenship choice’ at Henley forum

Malta offers the “natural choice’ of citizenship for people wishing to form part of an exciting project, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said of the country’s passport sale scheme.

He was speaking at a forum on residence and citizenship planning, held in Zurich and organised by Henley & Partners, the concessionaries of the Individual Investment Programme.

“Malta has a vibrant economy that offers work and a high quality of life to its citizens,” Muscat said. “We are therefore using our citizenship programme to attract the best talent to continue making our country a success story on a global level. This is why Malta’s citizenship programme is so strict, exclusive, and expensive.”

The concessionaries oblige the Maltese government to provide its top brass to promote the IIP.

This is the fifth time that Muscat himself has addressed Henley conferences: he has previously addressed audiences in London, New York, Miami and Singapore in which he advocated Malta’s Individual Investor Programme as a way of “attracting talent”.

Muscat told investors at the forum that Malta’s economic roadmap is leading to positive results.

He pointed out that the European Commission has recently forecast Malta’s GDP to grow by 3.6% this year and its economy to keep performing strongly over the next two years.

He referred to the Shanghai Electric Power’s purchase of a 33% stake in Enemalta, the government’s agreements with Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry to open a medical campus in Gozo, its agreement with Italian investors to open a new private hospital in Smart City, and yesterday’s agreement to construct a private university in Malta.

“Other alternatives exist for people who want to buy citizenships quickly and on the cheap, but Malta is the natural choice for people who want to form part of an exciting project and a country with a good reputation.”