Moldova Government has made a decision to further suspend the citizenship by investment program until Sep 1, 2020. No further applications will be accepted until this date.
This is the third extension of suspension by the Government has put the scheme in vacuum. The scheme is not closed yet and the Government pretty much remains undecided yet.
The state secretary at the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry, Iuliana Dragalin, said that the government asked for the extension of the moratorium, in order to improve the law, “which brings benefits to the state. We want to attract investments, which will contribute to the country’s development and opening of new jobs. Yet, we want to give assurances to the worried people that the risks are minor for the country’s security,” reported Moldova state news agency
Moldova launched citizenship by investment scheme in Oct 2018 for 5000 investors, in exchange for investments in the following three routes
- State donation: €100,000
- Real Estate: €250,000
- Government bonds/securities: €250,000
So far out of the 34 applications received, only 8 investor files have been approved for citizenship after stringent checks. Still 26 applications are still pending for approvals.
The first two citizenship cases from India and Australia under MCBI investment.
The Government has sought internal security report on the risks posed by granting citizenship to foreign investors.
The opposition criticized the law of citizenship through investments and demanded not only the establishment of a moratorium but even the repeal of the law, as it would present risks to the security of the state. The European commission report published in 2019 also expressed concerns about Moldova running a citizenship for investment scheme.
During the months of suspension, the law makers expected to look closely into legality of dual citizenship, costs of the projects, and disclosing names of CBI citizens to public. The Citizenship legislation of Moldova allows its citizens to hold dual citizenship.
DAN PERCIUN, deputy PAS stated during his plenary speech “It is somehow illogical for us as a state to encourage one citizen to break the law of another state and then to protect him by anonymizing his name. It is normal and common sense for us to know who our fellow citizens are”, TVR Moldova reported
“A country that does not have oil, has no mineral deposits, we have such a low budget, we want investments, on the other hand, we do our best to ensure that nobody comes to this country.”, said ALEXANDRU JIZDAN, chairman of the commission
Agents who have been issued licenses will be extended to period equal to that of moratorium. So far 9 agents have been authorized to submit applications, in accordance with the Government Decision No. 786 of October 4, 2017 on obtaining of citizenship-by-investment and MCBI Program’s Commission Policies.
The future of Moldova CBI scheme hangs in balance for now and the Government will move to decide on the fate of the scheme once the suspension period ends.
