Henley citizenship roadshow takes Joseph Muscat to Dubai

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was in the Gulf emirate of Dubai today Monday, marking another ‘venue’ in his global roadshow selling citizenship for Henley & Partners.

Muscat’s pitch to his audience was to extol the virtues of Malta’s economy and to promote the Individual Investor Programme as no money quick-fix for the country but “to access only the best talent and investment to Malta which would otherwise not have been accessible.”

Muscat said this while addressing the 9th Global Residence and Citizenship Conference in Dubai.  

“Our citizenship by investment is tight, capped at 1,800 applicants, and has the most rigorous due diligence, because we are only after the best talent and investors.”

He belted out the positives of the Maltese economy: fastest-growing at 5.1 per cent, a deficit at 1.6% of the GDP, reduced energy tariffs, income tax cuts. universal childcare, and increased budgets on education and healthcare.

“In other words, we are managing to strengthen our public finances simultaneously as we lighten the cost of government burden on families and businesses,” Muscat said.

He also spoke on Malta’s employment rate which stands at the highest ever recorded levels in its history, whilst also having the third lowest unemployment rate in Europe.

“Our economy is at the cutting edge of global trends. The value-added by the financial sector increased by 12%. That of the professional and administrative services by 11%, real estate by 6%, and information and communications technology by 4%. We are opening up to investment in new economic sectors such as healthcare, energy, education and logistics.  Malta achieved a lot already, but there is more room for us to grow and for investors and global citizens to find a safe haven where to invest and reach other destinations,” Muscat said.