SmartCity agreements to be signed on Monday

The government will seal the Smart-City Malta deal with Tecom Investments of Dubai when two agreements will be signed on Monday, the Ministry for Investment, Industry and Information Technology said yesterday.

One agreement is the deed for the emphyteutical grant of the site formerly occupied by the Ricasoli industrial estate and the other is the investment agreement.

Tecom will be represented in Malta by a senior delegation led by its chairman Ahmad Bin Byat. The delegation shall also include Tecom's chief executive officer, Abdullatif Al Mulla, and Smart-City's executive director, Fareed Abdulrahman.

The signing follows the unanimous approval by Parliament of the draft contract submitted by Investments Minister Austin Gatt after the conclusion of negotiations on the SmartCity project.

SmartCity Malta is a project that meets the aspirations of Malta to be the region's ICT Centre of Excellence, the ministry said.

It would generate several thousand high-quality jobs in the ICT and media trades and in other sectors that support to the ICT environment, such as tourism, administration, security and others.

The project contract commits Tecom Investments to guarantee the creation of a minimum of 5,600 jobs within stipulated time-frames.

The capacity of the planned project, however, allows for up to 7,600 jobs to be created in the ICT and media business park. A KPMG report on the socio-economic impact of SmartCity forecasts that, including the multiplier effect of the project, some 10,500 people will be earning their living in 2018 at or as a result of SmartCity.

At today's prices this, coupled with profits generated locally by suppliers to the new township, will mean that SmartCity would be contributing some Lm229.5 million to Malta's GDP. This makes Smart-City Malta the single biggest new contributor to Malta's economy ever to have been secured through foreign direct investment, the ministry said.