Ah, she just wanted to go back home – and be paid handsomely for it
Konrad and Sai Laing Mizzi with Manuel and Codruta Mallia
We’ve just heard the news that Mrs Konrad Mizzi, who has just been given an apparently open-ended job on an undisclosed salary, as Malta Enterprise’s business development envoy in Asia, will be living in Shanghai.
Given that she is known to be miserable in Malta, that she hasn’t been able to adjust to her life here, I am not surprised at all. Everything has been conveniently arranged so that she can go back home for a few years at least, and be paid handsomely (well, that’s why they won’t disclose her salary, terms and conditions) while doing it.
The Energy Minister didn’t return from China directly with the rest of the Maltese delegation. He went from Dalian to Shanghai.
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Kollox mahdum bizzilla.
Are we sure her problem is Malta?
Smells a little fishy, doesn’t it?
My guess is that she hasn’t adjusted to life in Malta only since her husband got involved in politics.
Well no, she hasn’t adjusted to her husband for a while now. Not exactly the happy couple as far as I could see.
‘Transparency’ my foot!
The logic is untenable. Make that the brazen cheek.
‘…Asked whether there should have been a public call for expressions of interest for the sale of the Enemalta stake, Dr Mizzi said that there was no need since this was a government to-government deal.’
As if national interests coincide. He’ll bring Malta to its knees.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130924/local/china-made-first-approach-for-enemalta-deal-mizzi.487527
And will The Times and everyone else stop repeating the foothold thingy in the European solar panel market? The Chinese hold an 80% stake already. That’s until anti-dumping measures are adopted in December.
Here we are, all set to become the sweat shop of Chinese ‘quality’ manufacturing.
It’s utterly tragic how Muscat’s vision centres solely around the people’s republic and its practices. As usual, Labour place confounded geo-strategy first, leaving us mere spectators.
Perhaps riveting sheetmetal to produce box frames is hi-tech in their book.
Come to think of it, the inherent totalitarian attitude to ‘government’ in that quote.
The public becomes an obstacle to its workings. They’ll serve us, on a plate.
The inherent totalitarian attitude to government isn’t solely in that quote.
It is the mindset and outlook of Muscat’s government generally. Democratic checks and balances are viewed as ‘bureaucracy’ and ‘inefficiency’.
Any moment now, we’ll be served up some ‘social harmony’ rhetoric.
Jozef, Keep Calm and buy ‘Made in China.’
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130924/local/china-made-first-approach-for-enemalta-deal-mizzi.487527
How is the Labour government going to convince us that the sale of a share in Enemalta to China was a strategic sale when Konrad Mizzi (Shame on Him) is now admitting that it was China that made the first approach with the government? If anything, this suggests that this deal has a strategic value for China, but not necessarily, and indeed unlikely, for Malta.
An important fact that needs to be clarified is whether the Labour government had appointed any experts on the sale of Enemalta before the visit in China. But if China made the first move, then it is clear that the Labour government had no experts on board and it would be difficult to believe that the Labour government had even a vision for Enemalta, let alone a strategy of sale.
If we are being told the truth about China’s move (and I have my reservations about this), then a sale was probably not even on the cards.
How can the Labour government argue that this is a strategic move when it had not carried out a study to identify and evaluate its strategic options, and to select the most advantageous one? It’s a process in which the government would engage a reputable international consultant, say one of the investment banks. Even a local bond issuer would resort to a financial institution to act as a manager to raise a couple of millions in finace. But we are not aware that Muscat & Co have engaged anyone for this purpose, are we? Unless that’s why they are paying Dr. Toni Abela, the Deputy Leader of the Malta Labour Party, for ‘legal advisory services’, but I do not think so.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/09/more-snouts-in-the-trough-now-its-labour-party-deputy-leader-toni-blokka-silg-abela/
Any decent strategic advisor would have suggested that the government should have used an international call for expression of interest. This would have attracted a range of investors and the government would have the luxury to evaluate and choose, and to bid them against each other for the highest offer.
The omission is obvious. Why did the government issue a call for expression of interest in the case of the gas plant project but not in the case of selecting a ‘strategic partner’ for the company?
And while on the subject of Enemalta, the government should be made to explain how and why there were only three bidders left for the new gas plant project.
What exactly happened to the others? When the process started, there were 19 expressions of interest. What happened to the “Energy giants” (Malta Today) and “Big names” (The Times) – Shell, Gazprom, Edison?
Why exactly did they pull out?
Were they disqualified by some adjudicating committee, and if so, can we see a report with the committee’s recommendations – can this be tabled in front of Parliament? Or perhaps we can see a publication of the minutes of that committee (Nooo, don’t tell me the committee did not keep minutes?).
Or did they withdraw spontaneously? And if they withdrew spontaneously, why did they do so? What were the points of divergence during the negotiations? Why were they unwilling to invest in this project, which we were told was profitable and attracted huge interest?
Can the independent media check with Shell, Gazprom and Edison WHY they abandoned their interest in the Malta project?
Spot on re the other bidders.
They’ll come back and say it’s not in Malta’s strategic interest having on board the only ones who can do it.
All the bull about looking at the offshore terminal option, when it was a known fact only Edison had the technology and portfolio. Problem seems to be the Qataris competing directly with China in the Med.
As for made in China, they’re losing it, manufacturing and technology require democracy and its benefits to flourish. Work is a value if it has to grow and values usually come in packages.
Everything else is false. Do we know that.
Actually, I am still thinking about the timing of the MOU with China – announced hastily and by surprise on 11 September 2013 – just 9 days before the closing date for the submission of final bids on 20 September.
And I am wondering. By the time of the final submissions, the “Energy giants” and “Big names,” which had put their names in the hat in the original expression of interest, were aware of the deal reached by Joseph MOUscat with China.
Therefore, if that deal was of such strategic breakthrough to Enemalta as it is being presented – Joseph & CONrad are trying to convince us that Malta will become an energy hub and an exporter of energy – why did the “Energy giants” and the “Big names” withdraw and did not submit their offers for the gas plant?
Why were they not excited, what held them back? Are those global energy players so foolish to underestimate such a “strategic deal”?
With the information available on 20 September, why did those leading players walk away from the opportunity to deal with China – the world’s second largest economy – in its new strategic location in the Mediterranean?
Or is it a case that they had already lost, or been made to loose, their interest before the announcement of the deal with China, and was the deal announced only after they had declared, or it had become known, that they had lost their interest?
Was the deal announced in time to accomodate a final submission by any one or more of the final three bidders? This could be the case, for example, if the final bidders were asked to provide some bank commitment to credit, which commitment would not have been forthcoming from the banks unless Enemalta was put in a better financial position…
Where is the investigative independent media?
“There was no need” is incorrect. The correct phrase is “there could never have been” a call for expressions of interest, because the objective was to cut a deal in China’s favour.
Actually they announced from day one that she’ll be operating from Shanghai, when the news was leaked. Very convenient getting paid to go back home.
Outrageous! And no more ‘klikka’ they had said.
And these people are those who kvetched all he time about the “evil clique” when they had theirs ready on the fourth floor of the Labour Party HQ.
So now we have the State subsidising “divorce” settlements too ?
You beat me to it, was just about to say that myself.
Isn’t the Chinese relaxation of its internet control in Shanghai a serendipitous piece of news for Dr and Mrs Mizzi? At least, they will be able to use Facebook et al. and will be able to ‘like’ their respective endeavours in the interest of the country…wait, which one?
Who says China is relaxing internet control? They even infiltrate VPNs.
What did you expect them to do? Swap wives and send Mrs Mallia to Shangai instead?
Ma tahsibhomx il-Lady. Not at all.
And now perhaps Mrs Manuel Mallia will be sent to Romania as special envoy of Malta Taghna Lkoll, on a salary.
Or, even better, swap husbands and send Dr Mallia to Shangai. I’m sure Mrs Mizzi Liang couldn’t make a bigger mess of his ministry if she tried.
I see where you’re going, Antoine, and if you prefer husband swapping to swapping wives, by all means.
But your idea stinks anyway. I can see a swapped Dr Mallia doing fine in Shanghai, but why should Sai get to be Homeland czar when he can do a better job himself from Shanghai?
I mean, Lady Deafley runs the whole Runny Nosebook enterprise from Mali and you would never have guessed.
Istja, kemm hawn irgiel Maltin ohra li jmorru sahansitra sac-Cina biex jistghu jzuru lil-kunjata, anke jekk ihalsilhom l-taxpayer Malti.
I would adjust that title a little bit. “Ah, she just wanted to go back home – and be paid handsomely for it by all of us”
Tghid Konrad ser jibda jmur Shangai kull gimgha biex jara lil Sai ? Minn but il-poplu?
Jeez, she’s quite a fast mover, Mrs. Mizzi Liang.
She first moved (with her husband) from the Marsaxlokk area to the Sliema, presumably to avoid angry constituents demanding their pound of flesh from the elected Minister and to run away from the dangerous zone which he will create in Marsaxlokk.
And now she is off to Shanghai.
the-energy-minister-is-moving-to-sliema-to-get-away-from-all-the-working-class-people-knocking-on-his-door
Oops, the link, of course.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/06/the-energy-minister-is-moving-to-sliema-to-get-away-from-all-the-working-class-people-knocking-on-his-door/
Must be feeling homesick, poor thing.
If this was a medieval drama ala Game Of Thrones, and bearing in mind that Labour IS medieval, I’d say she was being held hostage by the Evil Chinese Dictatorship to ensure that the promises Labour have made in exchange for the €200 milliion are kept.
But China isn’t a dictatorship with a history of human rights abuse and using families as leverage to get people to do its bidding, right?
Hawwadni ha nifhmek.
…..and the opposition just sits there and does f*** all.
Exactly what do you expect the Opposition to do? This is not a government with a slim one seat majority which one would have hoped that somewhere down the line they could find one decent Labour MP to side with them.
In a recent ‘Iswed fuq l-abjad’ programme, the interviewer asked both Jason Azzopardi and Anne Fenech several times why the fuss, news conferences and newspaper articles in the Nationalist press about such matters while at the same time hinting openly that many think that the Nationalists have been accused of ‘sleeping’ all summer long!
Which is it going to be? Too much or too little, or, in my opinion, just right?
Have patience, Troy. I think that these issues are best dealt with in parliament.
No, you fall, you get up, dust yourself down and get ready for another fight.
You don’t go to party clubs and complain to the converted – no,no and no.
Simon Busuttil has to get his priorities right and show some balls.
They are not. They have commented about it since it happened. However, with a 9-seat majority, there is little they can do except comment on it continuously.
And I hardly expect any of the Labour parliamentarians who were so vocal about abuses etc allegedly committed by the Nationalists to say anything.
One hopes that the people who gave them their vote in the idiotic belief that Labour will ever change will have their say in May 2014 and change their tune.
She won’t be away only from Malta; from her husband too.
In her position, I would too. I have as yet to come across as insipid a person as Mizzi – bar Muscat, that is.
I think that’s just the point.
There’s far more to it than meets the eye. Of that let us all be sure.
I would not wonder that the whole thing had been brewing for quite a few months.
It’s nice that we know that our energy minister is being paid to give up his sex life.
Handsomely enough, perhaps, for him to afford “diversions” if and when he so desires?
On the other hand I would not dismiss the existence, or possibility, of some local ‘Monika Levinskis’
Shame on you Minister Mizzi. Shame on you.
This story will not be complete until we are told what makes this person a “specialist” in the field allotted to her, apart from the fact that she is Chinese.
Apparently, she has all of this experience:
But she is nowhere to be found on LinkedIn (Konrad is).
“It said that Mrs Mizzi, who is a Maltese citizen, holds a first degree in International Trade from Dalian, China, pursued postgraduate studies at the Beijing Foreign Language University and has a Master’s degree in Investment and Finance from the University of Nottingham.
She specialises in business development, international investment and trade promotion, market research and project management.
She has in the past developed business plans in various industrial sectors to access the Asian markets and also supported the development of tourism promotion.
A few years ago, Mrs. Mizzi had also project managed the first version of the Visit Malta websites for the Japanese and Chinese markets. She also carried out market analysis for international companies pursuing opportunities in China and in Asia. She worked with Big Four audit companies for a number of years as well as with international export firms in Asia and Europe.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130924/local/appointment-for-ministers-wife-is-height-of-nepotism-pn.487546
She’s Chinese and her husband is Maltese, so of course she is an expert.
@ Gary
The qualifications quoted carry merits which are not to be ignored, and, I am sure, would have faced the challenge of a public call for the filling of the newly created post.
The fact that the post was not advertised, and that it went to the wife of a minister, still raises questions on the appropriateness of the procedure followed for the creation and filling of this post.
Utter SCUM.
Mahduma bizilla.
This is a real shame on you, Mr Minister.
Where’s Privitera?
Careful now. The correct spelling is Priviteeeeera.
Hopefully, Mrs Mizzi Liang will take him with her to Shangai.
Vomiting all over the timesofmalta.com comments board.
Probably agreeing with the decision, you know because she is Chinese and her husband is Maltese, so of course they have the interest of Malta at heart
He’s run out of exclamation marks, and he went to Shanghai to buy some cheap ones.
Konrad’s plan of having the wife sent back to China has worked perfectly. We shall soon hear what a big sacrifice the minister is making for the good of us Maltese. What a bunch of hypocrites.
The opposition has a field day if they really want to hit the government. They are giving the government an easy ride.
http://s18.postimg.org/7wrsiygm1/Sai_Mizzi_Liang.jpg
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-09-24/news/pn-demands-answers-on-me-appointment-of-konrad-mizzis-wife-2710962176/
Also, does Mrs. Mizzi Liang have any family or other close connections with persons in power in China’s communist government, or with China Power Investments, or with its Shanghai subsidiary?
So we have the midline furrow on Joseph Muscat, and the horizontal forehead furrows and nostril flaring by Konrad when challenged on the truth.
Konrad Mizzi says she was approached by Malta Enterprise. Surely, for the ME to approach someone they’d have to know about the person.
Ask Shiv Nair.
Now that all the fuss about the 500 euro pay-rise of the previous administration is dead and buried, six months into this new administration it is the time to reflect as to how the holier than thou members of the new regime managed to give themselves a pay rise in the most cryptic manner.
The slogans did serve their purpose for they conned quite a few people into voting Labour when everybody was blaring out for change.
But as always any change which is brought on as a consequence of spite can have nasty repercussions.
“Xoghol f’Ghawdex ghal Ghawdxin” we were promised, but I guess the Enemalta deal changed everything. Now its “xoghol ghac-Cinizi fic-Cina”. Shame on you
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130924/local/cardona-says-he-has-no-idea-how-energy-ministers-wife-was-recruited.487461
We will soon learn that she is doing it for free. Just wait for it.
Bums and parasites, the whole lot.
If my wife was from Zimbabwe would they appoint her Malta’s advisor for Africa?
Il-majjalata Laburista bidet tilhaq livelli interessanti u perikoluzi.
Bla misthija ta’ xejn u fid-deher. Ahseb w ara fil-mohbi.
Anke f’kumpanija privata decisjoni bhal din titlob kunsens mill-azzjonisti jew diretturi jew familiari.
If it is a question of culture shock – how can co-ordination between two cultures be worked out effectively?
I think it’s not a question of culture shock so much as the shock of full realisation that she married a weirdo.
He is on the Times of Malta web blog defending everything Labour without any thought given to the subject as usual.
If it is “Labour” it must be good, no questions asked.
There is a line in the film Argo, when the two producers tell Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), about making the fake movie credible to the Iranians:
“If you wanna sell a lie…you get the press to sell it for you”.
That is exactly what most of the Maltese media did last summer, when Labour got them to sell the lie that Gonzi´s government was corrupt and that Labour was the new movement to clean up the act.
Yeah right.
Oh and for the record, Malta Enterprise (ex-MDC) used to advertise vacancies for overseas posts and hold interviews.
Utterly no shame at all!.
Apparently, she spent a couple of years working with one of the Big Four audit firms and helped build plans for develppments (but not sure if those plans were ever used to develop anything as it was not mentioned in the article).
Well, so have I worked for one of the Big Four – and not in Malta, I might add – and for more than a couple of years. And I helped in the development of plans for clients. But my husband isn’t a government minister with friends like Mario Vella, chief of Malta Enterprise.
Oh and I also speak English, so maybe I should be the High Commissioner instead. But then I never worked for Super One TV.
Apparently she project-managed the development of the Visit Malta websites for China and Japan.
But the domains visitmalta.cn (China) & visitmalta.jp (Japan) are not being used and do not have websites.
The visitmalta.com site does have the Japanese language (not Chinese), but it’s the same website for all languages.
So what did she actually project-manage, given that the two sites mentioned do not actually exist and it’s relatively easy to localise the same website in various languages which is done by programmers?
Someone on Facebook uploaded this meme which explains it all.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/q71/s720x720/65049_10200663867826004_243119345_n.jpg
OK, so Konrad Mizzi admitted with the media that he discussed the Malta Enterprise appointment with his wife.
Since this entailed an ethical dilemma, did he discuss it with the Prime Minister?
What did the Prime Minister say? Or did he just issue another waiver?
Nxt – a job for Manuel Mallia’s wife as head of the Pharmacy of Your Choice Scheme. Isn’t she supposed to be a pharmacist with Romanian qualifications?
You have only one option, Mr. Konrad. Go and live with you wife away from Malta. Your first priority should be to take care of her.
Yes, but does she really want that?
Ma nafx jien, imma meta ir-ragel jew il-mara ikunu se jmorru jahdmu go pajjiz barrani ghal tul ta’ zmien sa fejn naf jien isiefru maghhom.
Ovvjament il-ministru f’ dan il-kaz ma jistax, allura jekk ried jaghti job lill-martu ma setax isibilha wiehed hawn Malta?
Ma tantx jinhabbu nahseb, iktar nahseb isseparaw bil-pulit minghajr karti, u peress li taghna lkoll, mela ahna ha nkunu qed inmantnu lil mara separata tal-ministru.
She will be in contact with her minister husband via facebook as China will be lifting ban on FB and other sites, and guess what ONLY in Shangai! See attached article: http://allfacebook.com/china-shanghai-free-trade-zone_b125425#!