Urgent need for permanent residency scheme highlighted

The country's economy and its reputation with international investors is suffering because of a lack of permanent residency scheme, the Malta Chamber for Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said.

It said in a statement that since the suspension of the scheme in December, it had demanded its swift reinstatement.

"Seven months later and despite various assurances, the new schemes have not been implemented.

"We now risk not having the new schemes in place until after Parliament resumes after the summer recess," it said.

The chamber said that given the small and open characteristics of its economy, MaIta cannot afford to compromise its reputation.

"The whole country depends on international linkages and inflows in terms of business and investment.

"The Malta Chamber was and still is a strong advocate of EU membership because such membership has given us legislative stability.

"Through such stability private enterprise is able to plan ahead and take investment decisions based on legislative certainty.

"In fact, based on this same approach the private sector and indeed the government itself has for the past few years undertaken various initiatives to attract foreign capital to Malta.

"The unilateral decision to suspend the whole scheme leaving all stakeholders in a state of limbo is unacceptable and is causing significant economic damage," it said.

The chamber said it was of the opinion that the Maltese economy had no choice but that of adopting an export oriented approach to generate wealth from beyond the small local market.

"Export-oriented initiatives which boost the economy, such as the Permanent Residency Scheme, have been suspended without warning.

"To add insult to injury, excessive delays in its revision and reinstatement are causing hardships and loss of business across a number of sectors.

"The Malta Chamber has for the past months been in contact with the authorities with the aim of assisting in the proposed review of the Permanent Residency Scheme.

"These efforts have, however, not achieved the desired results.

"The Malta Chamber continues to expect a firm reply from government as to whether the Permanent Residency Scheme will indeed be launched again and if so when this will happen," it said.