Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1331044
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 20 JANUARY 2021 NEWS Maria Efimova KARL AZOPARDI MALTA'S residency visa pro- gramme generated 136 direct jobs in the financial services and ICT sectors and contributed a one-off injection of €50 million. The figures come from a report that analysed the full three years of the programme's functioning between 2017 and 2019. The report was presented by Cit- izenship Parliamentary Secretary Alex Muscat ahead of today's First Reading in parliament of the new residency programme. The visa programme offered third country nationals a chance to obtain a second residency in Malta. According to the analysis the programme generated 136 new jobs, which increased to 290 when considering the multiplier effect. The economic impact assess- ment showed that the investment in property as a result of the pro- gramme was relatively small when compared to the entire real estate market. The visa programme will be re- placed by a new residency pro- gramme, which will also allow beneficiaries to obtain citizenship after satisfying a minimum resi- dency requirement. The new programme will de- mand higher fees, an increase in the threshold for investment in property and a donation to a char- ity of the applicant's choosing. Muscat said the former agencies responsible for the different citi- zenship and residency tracks will now be grouped under Komuntà Malta, which will be responsible for all citizenship tracks, including that by investment. He said the new agency was committed to "strengthening" government's residency-by-in- vestment avenue by ensuring Malta's proposition is competitive and the programme's platform and management are robust. "It will collaborate with other relevant entities to explore new possibilities of investment, while diversifying the regions of its mar- ket," Muscat said. With a staff of 34, the agency according to Muscat, is well- equipped with industry profes- sionals and due diligence experts. Visa residency programme generated 136 direct jobs in three years Citizenship Parliamentary Secretary Alex Muscat (centre) said a new permanent residency programme will replace the previous visa programme KURT SANSONE FORMER Labour deputy leader Joe Brin- cat's arrest in Italy 33 years ago, resurfaced during libel proceedings against MediaTo- day executive director Saviour Balzan. Testifying in front of Magistrate Rachel Montebello, Balzan recounted how in 1987 Brincat was arrested in southern Italy after being caught red-handed in posses- sion of contraband jewellery. The defamation case was filed by Brincat over an opinion penned by Balzan in Mal- taToday last September. Balzan said the libel proceedings were vexatious and based on wrong assump- tions. He said the reference to Brincat's case in Italy was a side remark in a long opinion piece that focussed on former Na- tionalist Party leader Adrian Delia's public statement on political appointees. When taking the witness stand, Balzan recounted the events from 1987, when Brincat was arrested in Italy. Balzan said that the original articles in the press in 1987 had clearly indicated the efforts made by the late Guido de Marco, then deputy prime minister, to intervene with the Italian authorities to release Brincat from prison. He said that the Times of Malta had reported de Marco's comments back then where he made it clear that he would be talking to his Italian counter- parts to intervene in Brincat's case. Balzan gave a detailed account of how the Italian police had scouted Brincat as he returned to a junk yard to inspect a damaged car belonging to Maltese nation- al Colin Shires. Colin Shires had crashed his car and was in intensive therapy in an Italian hospital. As Brincat and Shires's wife retrieved the hidden, undeclared jewellery and cash from the wrecked car that was being kept in judicial custody, the Italian police pounced and arrested both of them. Balzan said that all this could be verified from the reports of ANSA in 1987, which were also quoted and cited in court. Brincat was eventually released from in- carceration only because of the Maltese government's intervention, specifically that of Guido de Marco, Balzan testified. Two years later the same Italian court found Brincat guilty and condemned him to four months imprisonment and a fine of 400,000 Italian Lira. Brincat had not appeared in court inspite of de Marco's declaration two years earlier that he would vouch for Brincat's return to Italy to face justice. Balzan testified that at the time, all the Maltese press had tried very hard not to re- port the case and there were those such as Fr Joe Borg – today chairperson of the Mal- tese church's Beacon Media Group – who had defended him. When the newspaper Balzan was in- volved in at the time, Alternattiva, pub- lished the sentence by Neopolitan Magis- trate Lorenzo di Napoli, Brincat had filed three defamation cases, which he subse- quently lost. Balzan insisted in his testimony that no one could change the facts or alter history and Brincat's defamation case was simply vexatious and a waste of time. Joe Brincat's arrest in Italy three decades ago revisited in libel case A cutting of the newspaper Alternattiva from 1989 that reported on an Italian court's decision to sentence Joe Brincat to prison over a case of contraband jewellery from two years prior