The Dh1.1 billion ($300 million) Smart City in Malta, backed by Dubai’s Tecom Investments, will put Malta on the world IT map, said Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
Dr Gonzi told Gulf News in an exclusive interview that Malta would be a European centre for IT, healthcare and education, in line with its desire to become a global centre for financial services, staff reporter Mohammed Ezz Al Deen wrote.
Following the Malta parliament’s approval last week, he said, the official signing of the Smart City will be done in the next few days, while construction is expected to start within weeks.
SmartCity@Malta was undertaken by Tecom Investments – a Dubai government entity that manages Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and Knowledge Village.
Tecom Investments is currently promoting such projects globally in collaboration with Sama Dubai, an international developer.
“Smart City will help Malta’s GDP to grow 10 per cent, generate 5,600 jobs which could eventually go up to 10,000 in few years,” Dr. Gonzi said.
“For a small country like Malta, it is a fantastic number; it’s equal to 300,000 jobs offered by an enterprise in the UK!
“Smart City reflects the vision of the island to host value-added industries; we are planning to be a Mediterranean and European centre for the information and communication technology in the next five years.”
Smart City, he said, will attract $300 million of foreign direct investment to Malta.
Following its entry into the European Union, he said, “Setting up business in Malta would mean that you get access to doing business with the rest of Europe. Tecom explored the options, and we offered an attractive package with a large piece of land that used to be an industrial area.”
Malta wants to be a centre of education, healthcare, maritime tourism and financial services, he said.
“We have plans to be the world’s centre for financial services, as we are already one of the most successful financial services centres in the world, and we intend to achieve a bigger success in the next five years,” he said.
“We will make Malta a European centre of education; we will encourage foreign and European investments in this field and will attract foreign students to come and study here.
“After Dubai’s investment in Malta, we expect Middle East investments to increase over the next few years. We had big Libyan, Tunisian, and Egyptian investments, and the region’s biggest independent investment is a joint Maltese-Libyan company called Lafico, working in the hotel and tourism sector, the resources, as well as manufacturing,” Dr Gonzi said.