![Minister Dr George Vella and the Ministry team during the CMLA videoconference](http://www.mccv.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CMLA-videoconf-24Mar14-300x155.jpg)
Interviewed by TVM for a news report broadcast on SBS last week, Minister for Foreign Affairs and ex officio CMLA Chairman Dr George Vella said that on the CMLA agenda are issues on which during the year members of the Council communicate electronically among themselves and with the CMLA Secretary and Directorate within the Ministry.
Dr Vella said that CMLA members discuss the various issues affecting Maltese living overseas and generate ideas and opinions on those issues and these are conveyed to the Ministry.
![CMLA Secretary (second from left) during the CMLA videoconference.](http://www.mccv.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CMLA-videoconf-24Mar14-2-300x180.jpg)
![Monitor showing some of the participating CMLA members from overseas.](http://www.mccv.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CMLA-videoconf-24Mar14-3-300x194.jpg)
Maltese living abroad estimated at 900,000
In its news bulletin broadcast last week, TVM reported on the estimated number of Maltese living overseas. According to statistics held by TVM the number of Maltese up to the fifth generation residing abroad around the world is estimated at about 900,000, which more than double the population living in Malta.
By far the largest number of Maltese descendants up to the fifth generation lives in Australia where, according to the news report, from the census they are estimated at 447,000.
The second largest group of Maltese overseas lives in the United States numbering 220,000 and England with 91,000 is the third largest.
The surprising news was that there are Maltese who reside in places that one does not expect to find them, such as, Macao, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Christmas Island, Vanuatu as well as Trinidad and Tobago. There are some, if only a few individuals, living in countries such as Iran, Iraq, Botswana and Congo.
Malta’s membership of the European Union appears to have led to a substantial increase in the number of Maltese living in Belgium now numbering about 668. In continental Europe the Maltese presence includes 900 in Italy, 23 in the Vatican, 600 in France and 276 in the Netherlands.
There is also a large longstanding Maltese community on the Mediterranean island of Corfu numbering 7,000.
Malta’s commercial ties with the Middle East have led to an increase of Maltese presence in those countries including 733 in the United Arab Emirates and 36 in Qatar among others.
[Source: www.tvm.com.mt]