A New York Times dispatch from Malta reports on the high demand for citizenship there:
The tax system, in particular, has been a boon. Some foreign companies can be structured to pay 5 percent in corporate taxes. Malta also has double taxation treaties with 65 countries, allowing individuals and businesses to avoid being taxed in two places.
Significant tax advantages and a pro-business regulator have created a booming financial services industry. It now represents 12 to 15 percent of the country's G.D.P., up from 6.3 percent in 2004. Online gambling companies have flocked to the island, as have hedge funds.
With a strong corporate base, Malta sailed through the economic crisis relatively unscathed. The economy grew 3.5 percent in 2014. Unemployment is 5.8 percent, the fourth-lowest in Europe.
The article quotes "Mark Stannard, managing director of the Maltese office of Henley & Partners, a residence and citizenship planning firm." Who knew that there even was such a thing as a "residence and citizenship planning firm"? What a fine illustration of the point that capital, and the people who control it, are mobile, and will flow to places where it, and they, are well treated, and away from places where they are not.