Parliament to be financed through new property investment fund

The new parliament building will be funded through a new National Investment Fund which will administer public properties having commercial uses, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said in the Budget speech.

In this way, he said, the building of the new Parliament would not be a burden on taxpayers.

Mr Fenech said the project would be regarded as an investment which would be leased to the government.

Mr Fenech said the fund would be managed on purely commercial lines from a team of professional people.

It would work in three main areas:

1. the management and direction of Government commercial property with the aim of maximising the state’s revenue from this property;

2. to hold investments in stocks and shares, both local and foreign, and with no controlling interest; and

3. invest in national projects or projects of a strategic nature for the country, like the ones connected to the regeneration of Valletta.