The Government is willing to fine tuning the Individual Investor Programme through which foreigners can buy Maltese citizenship for €650,000, Economy Minister Chris Cardona and Parliamentary Secretary for the Economy Edward Zammit Lewis said.

They were asked whether they were worried by international reports about the scheme.

Dr Cardona and Dr Zammit Lewis said the Government was taking stock of the situation and monitoring the feedback and would fine tune if necessary.

However, asked if this meant that the Government was already considering amending the Act, which was approved from all stages in Parliament last Tuesday, they ruled out any imminent changes.

They attributed parts of the criticism levelled by the international media to the Opposition campaign against the programme saying the Opposition was tarnishing Malta’s reputation abroad

Dr Cardona and Dr Zammit Lewis were talking during a news conference focusing on the budget measure of the Economy Ministry.

Minister Cardona said that since the change in Government, Malta Enterprise had approved 30 new projects. These would create 500 jobs in the next three years.

He also announced that work on the Crafts Village at Ta Qali would start next year.

On the life sciences park in San Gwann, he said the first tenants were scheduled to move in by the end of next year.

Dr Zammit Lewis said that the Government would be working on the concept of open Government and e-democracy as citizens would be handed the opportunity to submit their feedback about various white papers online.