Possessing a Maltese passport opens up the doors to 169 countries without the need of a travel visa, according to an annual index compiled by Henley & Partners who have ranked it as the 9^th most powerful passport in the world.

The global citizenship and planning firm’s rankings for 2018 put Malta in 9 place, one better than last year when it was joint 10 with Hungary.

Henley & Partners was given a concession to operate Malta's controversial citizenship-by-investment programme, popularly known as the cash-for-passport scheme. Fellow EU countries, Austria and Cyprus, which also have similar passport schemes, ranked fourth and 17 respectively in the 2018 index.

Read the full article here.