Congratulations to the government, and in particular to Investments, Industry and IT Minister Austin Gatt for the great news that Malta received last week.

The setting up of SmartCity@Malta, with an investment reaching Lm110m, is a feather in the government’s cap. It will certainly be a big boost to the country’s economy and the fact that 5,600 new jobs will be created will effectively cut down on the number of people registering for work.

My worry is that considering that this is a specialised project, one that involves IT, Malta might now have enough people who are so well-trained as to be employed.

Although great strides forward have been made in the past years, I think that more should be done in order to encourage more young people to take up a career in this sector.

The project, it is said, will take two years for operations to start.

Two years might not be enough for people to be completely trained in IT, but we should start moving now.

We must be prepared.

T. Vassallo

Birkirkara