By the end of last year a total of €365.5 million from the sale of passports had been put aside in a special fund intended to finance projects of public interest.
However, so far only a small fraction has been committed for such purposes while a significant amount was used for the acquisition of Government Stocks and a 49 per cent shareholding in a commercial bank.
Details on the National Development and Social Fund were published in the 2017 annual report. Established in January 2015 by virtue of the passport scheme or the Individual Investor Programme as it is called, this fund receives 70 per cent of the proceeds.
Projects of national importance, social housing, better governance and healthcare improvement initiatives are among the list of purposes for which this fund may be used.

The money is administered by a board of governors and the first funds were deposited in July 2016.
From the annual report it transpired that the board adopted an “investment policy” whereby the fund was split in two separate portfolios. The bulk of the money (70 per cent) are being channelled in a “directed portfolio” for social and development purposes in line with the overriding principle of the…