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5. Against this background, the Chief Minister is hoping to exploit the interest shown by Hong Kong people in qualifying for eventual European Community citizenship in order to attract investment here. There are 2 ways
he hopes this can be done. There is, first of all, the standard scheme which applies to people of all nationalities under which anybody purchasing residential accommodation
accommodation in Gibraltar and able to demonstrate adequate income to maintain themselves here, can be given residence permits valid for as long as they live in the accommodation in question. This scheme however requires the individuals concerned to move to Gibraltar immediately. Bossano is also interested in a more specific scheme in support of HMG's policy of trying to encourage key people to remain in Hong Kong by giving them a long term safety net. He originally asked Mr Maude if Gibraltar could be associated in some way with the UK scheme, but Mr Maude told him that it was going to be complicated enough to steer the UK Bill through Parliament without adding an extra Gibraltar dimension. Mr Maude therefore suggested that he should look at the possibility of extending the scheme to Gibraltar by administrative means once the UK Act was in place. Bossano therefore raised the subject with Mr Garel-Jones in order to find out how this proposal could be pursued now that the UK Act has become law. According to Bossano, Mr Garel-Jones said he could not immediately say what form the "administrative means" might take, but that he would consult the Home Office.
6. As explained to the
the Governor, the Chief Minister's idea is
is to get employers in Hong Kong to give their key employees an incentive to remain there by investing money on their behalf in Gibraltar to purchase property which will not be ready for occupation for some years yet. Bossano does indeed think that up to 2,000 individuals could be attracted to invest in Gibraltar in this way, and that each of them could be asked to invest up to £ million. He hopes in this way to raise most of the money for the East Side development scheme, which with its 7-year time scale would fit in nicely with the timetable in Hong Kong. He may of course be wildly over-optimistic in assuming that there are enough employers ready to pay that amount of money to cover the costs of the East Side project. But he does claim to have at least one organisation who are interested in the scheme.
7. On the face of it, there is no need for British Ministerial clearance before he goes ahead with this scheme. He is not offering citizenship - only the right of residence, and even when the stage of offering citizenship is reached the decision will be within the Governor's existing delegated authority. But the Chief Minster wants to go a bit further than that and offer citizenship at an earlier stage as an added incentive to people to invest in Gibraltar. As we understand the UK scheme, it will offer the right to a British passport at any time that the individual concerned wishes to take it up, and does not require a 5-year minimum residence qualification. What Bossano would like to know is whether it is possible for us to offer a similar scheme for Gibraltar passports, and if SO whether the numbers involved would have to come within the 50,000 ceiling approved by the UK Parliament, or whether Gibraltar could offer a separate, self-contained scheme. It seems to me that UK Ministers can play this to their advantage
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