Malta's Dubai-backed Smart City will put island on IT map

Valletta, Malta: 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 Dr Lawrence Gonzi, the island's Prime Minister.

Dr Gonzi told Gulf News in an exclusive interview that Malta will be a European centre for IT, healthcare and education, in line with its desire to become a global centre for the financial services.

Following the Malta parliament's approval last week, he said, the official signing of the Smart City will be in the next few days, while construction is expected within weeks.

Malta Smart City was undertaken by Tecom Investments - a Dubai government entity that manages Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and Knowledge Village.

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Tecom Investments is currently promoting such projects globally in collaboration with Sama Dubai - an international developer.

"The 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!

"The Smart City reflects the vision of the island to host value-added industries, and we are planning to be a Mediterranean and European centre for the information and communication technology in the next five years."

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Smart City, he said, will attract $300 million of foreign direct investment to Malta.

Following its entry into the European Union, he said, "Setting business in Malta would mean that you get the access to doing business with the entire Europe. "Tecom explored the options, and we offered 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, and we are already one of the most successful financial services centres in the world, and we are intended to make a bigger success in the next five years," he said.

"And we will make Malta a European centre of education, and we will encourage the foreign and European investments in this field, and to attract the foreign students to come to study here.

"After Dubai's investment in Malta, we expect that the Middle East's investments will increase in the island in 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- tourism sector, the resources, and manufacturing as well," Dr Gonzi said.