Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/195525
6 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2013 UNJO NI EW Fenech Adami had turned down 'golden passport' proposal PASS R MALTOPEA A T and it was suggested to the Fenech Adami government it could sell Hong Kong citizens who were afraid to be part of the Chinese regime Maltese citizenship." According to Buttigieg Scicluna, Fenech Adami did not accede to the request, even though Malta was then passing through "an economically strained period". The government will be selling Maltese citizenship as part of its Individual Investor Programme, through its exclusive concessionaire Henley & Partners. Applicants will have to pay €650,000 for a passport, and other reduced fees for their spouses or dependents, apart from passing due diligence tests conducted by Henley or its registered agents. Identity Malta will be the government agency that will recommend the applicants pushed by Henley for eventual naturalisation by the Home Affairs Minister. TIMOTHY ATTARD MONTALTO FORMER prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami refused to consider a money-raking scheme to sell Maltese passports at the start of his premiership back in 1987. Former ambassador Noel Buttigieg Scicluna told party organ InNazzjon that Fenech Adami had been proposed the idea to sell citizenship, as an investment-promotion vehicle for Hong Kong citizens expecting an imminent handover to China from British ownership. Buttigieg Scicluna was commenting on the government's scheme to rake in €30 million in the sale of Maltese passports at the price of €650,000 per individual application. "During his time as prime minister there was a lot of pressure on him to turn Maltese citizenship into a commodity that could be sold. At the time Hong Kong [then still under British ownership] was in citizenship talks with the Chinese, APOR Former ambassador Noel Buttigieg Scicluna told party organ In-Nazzjon that Fenech Adami had been proposed the idea to sell citizenship, as an investment promotion vehicle for Hong Kong citizens expecting an imminent handover to China from British ownership tamontalto@mediatoday.com.mt Reno Bugeja turns a minister's grilling into an art Dissett presenter gives Mizzi survey on China's 'trust deficit' to pass on to his Chinese wife, now employed as Shanghai envoy for Malta Enterprise MATTHEW VELLA AS head of news at TVM, Reno Bugeja may have to contend with the job of producing even-handed bulletins that must also please his masters. But as presenter of Dissett, he has lost none of his sharp-edged wit and impatient questioning, as amply shown in his grilling of Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi earlier this week. Mizzi was explaining that it was China Power Investments, the stateowned Chinese company that will acquire a reported €200 million in Enemalta shares, that made its approach to Malta Enterprise back in April 2013. "This is a government-to-government agreement," Mizzi said when asked why a strategic partner had not been chosen by a global call for expressions of interest. "There are no commission agents here, so it is very advantageous for the government." While Mizzi boasted of the fact that UK Chancellor George Osborne was himself welcoming Chinese investment in its nuclear power framework, Bugeja faced Mizzi with a copy of a Davos summit newsletter – one published during the time Joseph Muscat was present when signing the Chi- REACHING CAMBODIA In an event organised on the 4th of October 2013 by Reaching Cambodia at Chateau Buskett in aid of orphan children in Cambodia, the sum of €1,550.00 was collected through entrance donations nese memorandum of understanding – citing an international survey showing Chinese firms faced a global trust gap. "CPI have a triple-A credit rating; they are very good investors." And it was here that the wily Bugeja slipped the newsletter over to Mizzi, cueing up for his next question: "I suggest you pass this on to your wife, it might be helpful for her in her job as envoy to Asia," was his sardonic comment. Mizzi replied with his trademark guilelessness, exchanging the BBC report he had in hand with Bugeja, who then went on to ask him whether it was a smart move to have his wife, Sai Mizzi Liang, appointed as an investment envoy in Shanghai. "Sai was chosen by Malta Enterprise and she's charged up for doing a good job," Mizzi said. "We're coping well. We have a good family and a trusting relationship," Mizzi said when asked whether the arrangement would not strain his family relationship. Sai Mizzi, who is Chinese, will be paid at least €33,000, apart from allowances – which the Opposition claims will touch €100,000 – to represent Malta Enterprise in Shanghai. Mizzi was faced with a grilling on the choice of the ElectroGas consortium, which, apart from its Maltese partners, George Fenech and Joe Gasan, of the Tumas and Gasan groups, respectively, includes British firm Gasol plc, Siemens and Azerbaijani stateowned gas company SOCAR. Faced with claims that a Gasol director had acquired a massive amount of shares prior to the tender award, Mizzi shrugged off the allegation. "I'd laugh that off. We never met Gasol before the election," he said of the gas project, which Labour proposed during the March 2013 election campaign. "And we ran a very fair and transparent process. The price was our determining factor. Due diligence studies were based on the financial information they passed on to us and on the advice of our consultants." Mizzi also said that the gas plant, at a €370 million capital cost, according to Gasol plc, will be delivered by the first half of 2015 as stipulated by the government, disputing Gasol's claims that the project would take 18 months to complete after "months of negotiations" with the government. "We will close negotiations in the coming weeks. It is possible to have the project completed within the timeline we proposed. We were clear with the bidder on this timeframe." The ElectroGas consortium will be providing fixed prices on electricity generation for five years, contrary to Labour's electoral pledge to have prices fixed for 10 years. "We will have price stability up to 2020. After that year, prices will be determined by a formula we have provided that will be tagged to an international index: it will be cheaper than oil and we will be able to hedge on gas prices," Mizzi said, saying he expected new gas reserves in the future to offer greater supply and lower prices. Prices of electricity generation are expected to be decreased from 18c per unit to 10c per unit. He dispelled claims that the government's intention to lower electricity prices in March 2014, despite warnings from credit rating agency Moody's of fiscal slippages affecting Enemalta's soaring debt, was a populist attempt at raking in votes in time for the European elections. "Far from it. We're hitting our timelines. People need these exaggerated tariffs decreased, and it will give a multiplier effect that will go towards industry and jobs." Bugeja challenged Mizzi on the conflicts of interest of three MEPA board members who had been drafted as technical experts on the gas plant's environment impact assessment, and also formed part of the ElectroGas consortium. "We have a list of 20 consultants involved in the EIA. I don't go into whether they should have been taken on as advisors or formed part of the consortium," Mizzi said. But as Bugeja pointed out, it will be government-appointed representatives on the MEPA board that will ultimately be deciding on the EIA of the new gas plant. The minister claimed that better hedging on the price of oil had enabled Enemalta to reap savings on its electricity generation, although a report by Moody's recently revealed that €36 million in savings were generated from the BWSC turbines running on heavy fuel oil. "The current savings are not enough, especially because the maintenance of the BWSC turbines are costly apart from the price of the fuel oil. That's why we need a new plant." He also defended a decision not to switch to gasoil from HFO, as pledged when in Opposition. "The logistics were impossible. While it is possible to switch the turbines from HFO to gasoil, our fuel tanks are small and we would have to empty them and clean them thoroughly before going for gasoil." He was also put on the defence on his party's criticism of David Spiteri Gingell, formerly Enemalta's deputy chairman during the time the corporation chose BWSC for the Delimara extension, whom Mizzi retained as a consultant. "Spiteri Gingell is an expert on renewable energy. The BWSC issue is another matter… he told the PAC he couldn't work under the former finance minister, who has a lot to answer for. Tonio Fenech left a massacre inside Enemalta." mvella@mediatoday.com.mt 'Democr Farrugia JAMES DEBONO SPEAKER Anglu Farrugia described elections in Azerbaijan, which yielded a staggering 85% to incumbent autocrat Ilham Aliyev, "fair, democratic and transparent" during a meeting with his Azeri counterpart, Ogtay Asadov, after last week's election. Farrugia's assessment conflicted with that of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who said they had also documented "widespread irregularities, including ballot-box stuffing and what appeared to be fraudulent counting". The OSCE reported clear indications of ballot-box stuffing in 37 polling stations, and that counting was assessed negatively in an unprecedented 58% of the stations observed. Farrugia was monitoring these elections just a few days before the ElectroGas consortium, which includes SOCAR Trading, a company owned by the Azeri government, won a bid to supply Malta with natural gas for 18 years. Farrugia was monitoring the elections on behalf of the European Academy for Election observation (EUAC). The delegation also included Nationalist MP Frederick Azzopardi, who was also present in the meeting with Asadov. EUAC is a Belgian-registered nonprofit organisation, which reported that the election had "consolidated democracy". The European Voice reports that the delegation was sponsored by the Berlin-based Society for the Promotion of German-Azerbaijani Relations (GEFDAB, which paid for flights and accommodation). In 2012, Der Spiegel described GEFDAB as a "lobbying group funded by Azerbaijan". Pro-government TopNews Azerbaijan reported a meeting between Farrugia and the speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament, Ogtay Asadov. Asadov noted that it was "the indicator of the trust of the people in their president". Farrugia is reported as saying that he was an eyewitness to the fact that "the election process was held in a democratic manner". "Voters came and easily cast their ballots. It is one of the most important things. We exchanged views with the OSCE, Russia and US monitors. After talks, our unanimous opinion was that the election was held in a fair, democratic and transparent manner." Farrugia's assessment tallied with that of observers from other delegations, including a group of former members of the United States House of Representatives as well as monitors from the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, who described voting as clean and efficient. Aliyev, thanking voters in a televised statement, called the elections "free and transparent". Farrugia's assessment conflicted with that of a prominent delegation of international election observers which sharply criticised Azerbaijan's presidential election as unfair and rife with fraud, amid aggressive efforts by the Azerbaijani government and its allies to portray the vote as legitimate. According to the New York Times, the split in assessments reflects "an aggressive lobbying effort by the Aliyev government to portray the election as fair". The New York Times reports that this effort was fully on display at the news conference held by OSCE