Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said yesterday 56 to 57 per cent of the 573 applications received so far under the individual investor programme were from Russia or former parts of the Soviet Union.

He said 19 per cent came from the Arabian Gulf and the Middle East, almost 13 per cent from Asia and seven per cent from North African countries. One per cent came from EFTA countries.

Mr Abela was answering a number of questions tabled by Opposition MPs Claudio Grech and Jason Azzopardi.

He assured the House the obligation of publishing an annual list of successful applicants in The Malta Government Gazette would be respected.

To a question by Mr Grech on whether there was any particular motivation for the IIP’s desirability in Russia and the former Soviet Union, the minister said obvious motivations were Malta’s membership of the EU and the country being a good place to live in. There were 81 applicants who had more than one citizenship.

Reacting to a comment by Dr Azzopardi, quoting a Times of Malta report, that some local IIP agents felt they were not on the same footing as Henley & Partners, Mr Abela said he had not been approached on this by any agent and he had no knowledge of formal complaints having been made with Identity Malta.