Government plans to open a diplomatic mission in the South American continent have been dropped as it was not deemed feasible.
Last year, then government spokesman Carmelo Abela, now Home Affairs Minister, announced the Cabinet had approved the buying of a building in Sao Paolo, Brazil, to serve as Malta’s first consular mission in the continent. But Foreign Minister George Vella has now told Times of Malta the project was shelved as it did not make financial sense.
“This project was already in the pipeline when we were elected. However, following various studies, we decided to shelve the project as it did not make financial sense,” Dr Vella said.
Asked about what happened to the building in Sao Paolo which the government announced it would be buying, Dr Vella said the sale had not been concluded.
It was too much of a risk. It is likely there would not have been enough work
He said the idea had been to use EU funds to finance the project.
However, after considering the possible low workload the Maltese consulate was likely to have and the fact that EU money would have to be refunded if targets were not met, the ministry decided to drop the plans.
Malta has never had any diplomatic presence in South America even though various administrations had explored the idea. Dr Vella said that though it would be a good idea to have such presence, this was not possible yet, given Malta’s limited resources. “It was too much of a risk to have a consulate in Brazil and it was likely there would not have been enough work for it in terms of handling visas and doing other consular-related activities. We have now diverted the EU funds to other consular activities, possibly a strengthened presence in Algeria,” Dr Vella said.
Malta already has a temporary office in Algiers shared by three entities: the Foreign Office, Malta Enterprise and Air Malta.
“Out intention is to have a bigger presence in Algeria and we will be trying to use the EU funds available for this,” Dr Vella said.
As the political situation in Libya remains in a state of flux, with many Maltese businessmen in the county closing shop or putting their businesses on hold, many are looking towards Algeria as an alternative place for investment.
Air Malta has already started direct flight to the Algerian capital and Maltese-Algerian business contacts are on the rise.
Dr Vella said the government intended to boost relations with Algiers.