The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has decided to move its more important meetings – those that concern matters of national importance and big projects that could create controversy – to new and bigger venues.

Last Monday, the discussion on the outline permit for SmartCity in the Ricasoli area was held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, a certainly more comfortable place than the stuffy, small hall where Mepa usually holds its meetings, and will continue to do so for the “smaller” projects.

But the turnout was extremely low. Except for the interested parties and a number of journalists, the hall was practically empty. Not one of the few members of the public voiced an opinion when time was allotted for such interventions.

Well, it cannot be said that SmartCity is a project that is not generating interest. It is, after all, the biggest project ever to be undertaken, with a massive foreign direct investment; a project that, when completed, will generate at least 5,600 jobs and will place Malta as a focal point in the ICT business.

So people did not turn up not because there is no interest in the project. They did not do so because, thankfully, everyone has realised the importance and impact that SmartCity will have on the country’s economy, and that such a project deserves all the support it can get.

Normally, people turn up at Mepa meetings to voice their objections, and we have had several instances when these events turned into rowdy affairs. The fact that the outline development permit was approved without any fuss means that the Maltese have practically given their tacit agreement to the project.

One may add, rightly so too. After so much hard work on the part of the government to build the necessary foundations and right political climate to attract such an investment to our country, and after Malta was actually chosen from among many other destinations for such a project to be carried out, we would have been shooting ourselves in the foot if we complicated matters for ourselves.

After its initial reservations, even the Malta Labour Party has nodded its assent for SmartCity, realising that public opinion was very much in favour of turning a patch of land that was little by little being neglected into one of the busiest areas and, most of all, leading to the creation of so many jobs. The MLP voted in favour of the project in Parliament too, making it a unanimous decision that pushed all political controversy aside.

Environmental organisations, very often quick to come up with protests each and every time some developer comes up with a plan, were also extremely cautious in the way they tackled the issue. They also must have understood that generally speaking the people were supporting the project, and that any complaints on their part would have been shot down as attempts to undermine it.

When plans for SmartCity were being unveiled, this newspaper had called for a sense of urgency in the way the project is treated by the authorities concerned, including Mepa. And it seems that, so far, things have moved rather smoothly, also because the major bone of contention during Monday’s sitting was not the project per se, but the road leading to the area in question. This road does not fall under the responsibility of the developers, but is a matter that the government must take in hand.

The upgrading of the road network from Zabbar to Ricasoli is a major factor in the whole process, and the government should not procrastinate any further in carrying out this task. It would be a really sad day if work on the SmartCity project is delayed because the road leading to the area would not have been completed.