Permanent residence scheme to be re-launched by end of May

The government will be re-launching the permanent residence scheme by the end of May, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning. He said this was a scheme through which many foreigners had been coming to Malta to invest and it had nearly been destroyed by the previous government. Dr Muscat, who was addressing the Labour Party’s annual general conference quoted a foreign investor who said that when one came to invest in Malta, one was faced with two certainties - a very good regulatory system of financial services and a residency system that was very inefficient. Dr Muscat asked how could people who came to Malta to invest be sent to queue for an ID card, for example. So, for efficiency and expediency, all related services were being elevated to a government agency . Dr Muscat said that a commissioner for simplification of rules would be appointed in the coming weeks in a bid to reduce bureaucracy. The commissioner would have political power and an unequivocal mandate to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy he said. The Labour leader said that his government would also be taking a good look at the problem of precarious employment. He warned employers who had won government contracts...