Leading players in the knowledge-based industry the world over are consistently investing to enhance the quality of working life of their knowledge workers.
The industry’s primary asset is the knowledge of the workforce and employers are increasingly realising that, apart from providing the right remuneration, they also need to deliver workplaces that fulfil their people’s aspirations.
SmartCity Malta, set to become the hub of Malta’s knowledge-based enterprises, believes that nurturing talent is the foremost priority for any successful knowledge-based operator, which is also the concept underlying the SmartCity Malta knowledge-based township.
SmartCity Malta draws the concept from the legacy and experience of the globally successful clusters created and operated by Tecom Business Parks in Dubai, amongst which are the world-renowned Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, Dubai Knowledge Village and Dubai Studio City. The clusters today host over 5,000 different knowledge-based companies, making them the largest managed commercial spaces in the world.
According to SmartCity Dubai CEO Fareed Abdulrahman, “Through our experience with the clusters created and operated by Tecom, we have built the necessary understanding of positioning the knowledge workers needs at the centre of our long term plan. We develop infrastructure for knowledge workers and not vice-versa. High quality environs and workplaces enable employees to deliver and contribute more effectively to their organisations’ goals.”
SmartCity Malta is building on that corporate legacy and is developing a mix of services to be established during the project’s Phase One, with the aim of creating a complete lifestyle destination for the knowledge workers of the ICT and media players who will be working there.
This first phase is to provide 20,000 square metres of Grade-A business space around the 100-metre diameter lagoon, together with over 6,000 square metres of themed retail space and a number of residential units.
To realise the concept, SmartCity Malta will be engaging local and international providers to establish operations in a number of service sectors including: a wide range of retail stores, food and beverage outlets with a special focus on healthy eating, flagship IT stores, health and well-being facilities, entertainment centres and banking services.
Such facilities, primarily located around the lagoon, will be partly situated in the ground floor of office buildings and will, as such, create a regional destination for the Maltese and foreign visitors alike.
To date, SmartCity Malta has demolished all the factories in the previous industrial estate, cleaned the site, constructed an administrative block for its operations and in November last year started the construction of SCM 01, which is expected to be handed over to the first business partners in 2010.