Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/188841
€0.90 WEDNESDAY EDITION WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT EDITORIAL - PAGE 10 WEDNESDAY • 9 OCTOBER 2013 • ISSUE 335 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY CITIZENSHIP OFFERS AT €650K NEW CITIZENSHIP SCHEME AIMS TO RAISE MILLIONS The Maltese government plans to offer citizenship against a payment. This is part of an Individual Investor Programme in new amendments to the Citizenship Act. The scheme appears to have been on the cards before the March election but failed to get implemented. The scheme emulates similiar citizen offers in the UK, Ireland and Austria. New applicants under this programme will have to pay €650,000, of which €10,000 will be a nonrefundable deposit, as well as €25,000 for their spouses and individual children below 18 years of age; or €50,000 for dependant parents aged 55 or over, and unmarried children aged between 18 and 25. CONTINUES ON PAGE 3 JAMES DEBONO UNDER the guise of promoting agritourism, the government is considering allowing new residential facilities on any agricultural holding greater than 60 tumoli (67,000 square metres). On Monday, during an interview with Reporter on TVM, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat categorically stated that there would be no development in ODZ. This scheme could be a way of circumventing this 'prime ministerial' commitment. MaltaToday is informed that the board of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority is considering this proposal currently. When asked whether the government is considering it, a spokesperson for Parliamentary Secretary Michael Farrugia simply replied that the final policy on agritourism "will be in line with the government's intention of regulating such industry". Although the number of landholdings greater than 60 tumoli is very limited, the approval of such a policy could serve as a pretext for ODZ development, accommodating those who have bought land which could previously not be developed at very low prices. Environmentalists have argued that agritourism should be limited to the footprint of existing farm structures. But the parliamentary secretary refrained from replying when asked for verification on that point. The government spokesperson was also mum on whether agritourism permits would be limited to registered farmers or open to anyone who owns undeveloped land. A spokesperson for Farrugia replied to these questions by saying that an ad hoc committee appointed by the government had completed the first draft of the policy regulating farm development outside development zones. CONTINUES ON PAGE 4, 5 29-year-old Labour candidate becomes Mount Carmel CEO Former Labour candidate's role at Mount Carmel 'strictly administrative' Despite Godfrey Farrugia's (right) previous claims that no changes were envisaged in the top management at Mount Carmel, Clifton Grima (left) said that he had been appointed COO and will oversee the administration of the hospital JURGEN BALZAN THE Labour election candidate and former mayor of Msida, Clifton Grima, now entrusted with running the country's mental health hospital, has told MaltaToday that his role is to be "purely administrative". The 29-year-old lawyer, who has been described previously as a "rapporteur" on mental health reform, replaced former Mount Carmel Hos- pital chief executive Dolores Gauci, founder of Richmond Foundation and until recently Head of Mental Health Services. Just a few weeks ago, Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia was unwilling to confirm that he was putting Grima in the role of hospital CEO. Farrugia limited himself to saying that "studies were still underway" over the implementation of the Mental Health Act. CONTINUES ON PAGE 4 Newspaper post 'Agritourism' as a ploy for ODZ development