SmartCity Malta CEO insists project on track
The SmartCity Malta project is on track, Caludio Grech, the project’s CEO insists in an interview with The Times Business today.
In a separate statement Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt told The Times Business that the ministry can “categorically state that SmartCity Malta is definitely not in breach of the contractual obligations it has made with the Government of Malta.”
The project has been very much in the public eye lately with the departure of two key people – senior project manager Martin Attard Montalto and infrastructure manager Joseph Anastasi – coupled with the fact that no construction work is taking place at the site and no further development applications have been submitted to Mepa.
Furthermore, reliable sources have told The Times Business that the majority shareholders in SmartCity Malta, namely Tecom Investments and Samai Dubai, are attempting to control the way the project is managed in Malta “by remote control” leading to frustration locally. The government of Malta is a minority shareholder in the project.
In today’s interview Mr Grech said that the international crisis has presented SmartCity Malta with both challenges and opportunities.
“On one hand the international market is more challenging since many major companies are not planning to expand their operations and the global IT spending is experiencing a marginal reduction in 2009. Nevertheless it also presented opportunities in the sense that a number of companies which are established in destinations with a higher cost of operation are now actively looking at relocating at least part of their operation in a location which is equally (if not more) effective but which offers a lower total cost of operation. SCM is striving to address the challenges by exploiting the opportunities emerging in the market,” he said.
Despite the lull in construction work Mr Grech says that progress at SmartCity Malta is “as scheduled and planned”.
“SmartCity Malta 01 will be ready for operation in 2010 providing its business partners with state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities,” he said.
Asked whether there are any Mepa permits or permits from other Maltese authorities still pending before the construction of the buildings speeds up at Ricasoli, Mr Grech replied: “We have strong ties with Mepa and other government authorities regarding the development of SmartCity Malta. Our relationship with them is ongoing for discussions on infrastructure, roads, utilities, etc that affect SmartCity Malta.”
Regarding the possibility of Microsoft being the first tenant at SmartCity Malta as mentioned by Minister Austin Gatt early in 2008, Mr Grech said: “Insofar as I recall back then Minister Gatt stated that Microsoft had expressed a serious interest to establish a competence centre in SCM. If and when Microsoft or any other major player set up at SCM, there will be the appropriate statements made by the two sides.”
Asked whether SmartCity Malta was still committed to create the 5,600 jobs promised at the launch of the project, Mr Grech answered: “With respect to the employment commitments, the company is making a massive investment in the development of an elite self-sustained township and so it stands to reason that it will engage intensively to create the committed levels of employment.”
The Times Business also sent a list of questions to Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt about the state of the SmartCity Malta project, the alleged conflict between the local management of the project and the owners in Dubai and whether there was any truth in the allegation that CEO Claudio Grech was about to resign and return to the Infrastructure Minister.
Dr Gatt replied: “The Government of Malta is a minority shareholder in SmartCity Malta. We do not control its project implementation, or its human resources management. You may therefore wish to put the questions you have concerning these matters directly to SmartCity Malta. On the rest of your questions, the information that we have as minority shareholders is consistent with the statement issued by SmartCity Malta following the last meeting of the Board of the Company on which we sit.
“The statement said that ‘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 2008 commenced the construction of SCM01’. The ministry can, however, categorically state that SmartCity Malta is definitely not in breach of the contractual obligations it has made with the Government of Malta.
“Regarding Claudio Grech, absolutely no discussions have ever been held in the sense of a possible return to the ministry so the rumour is a complete invention. You might also be interested to learn that the 50 per cent of two resignations from staff was due to the fact that this ministry offered Martin Attard Montalto the job of COO at the Network Infrastructure Directorate at ADT.”
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Galea. L
Jul 31st 2009, 08:29
SmartCity is simply a property speculation project and all land should revert to the Maltese people. Recession = no property speculation = no SmartCity development.
Gonzi give us back our land from foreigners hands.
stephen farrugia
Jul 30th 2009, 19:21
' Qatar' is the magic word. This month.
anton cassar
Jul 30th 2009, 16:37
Thats what Claudio Grech is saying.What about the investors,can somebody explain whats going on at Kalkara or better why there is no activity ? Or its through,what I heard from a someone that works with GO that the Arabs DISAPPEARED ?
Adrian Borg
Jul 30th 2009, 13:54
@ Colin Camilleri
Yes I agree that minimal downtime is a very important factor, but it is not impossible to secure such a factor! All it takes is responsible people.
And believe me, if there's anything that Malta has to offer, that's quality of employees to the private sector. On that front, the Maltese worker is rarely surpassed. People from China or India will offer a better product?
If that's the way you speak about Malta, than no wonder that grumblers like you drive investment away from Malta!
Galea. L
Jul 30th 2009, 13:43
SmartCity is simply a property speculation project and all land should revert to the Maltese people. Recession = no property speculation = no SmartCity development.
Gonzi give us back our land from foreigners hands.
Randolph Peresso
Jul 30th 2009, 12:33
@ Colin Camilleri
"Let's face it people, Malta has nothing to offer when compared to other EU countries." Please reatin your rock bottom self-esteem to yourself. Don't project it on others. Thank God, Malta is full of hardworking individuals who have a good self-esteem, that's why we have successes.
I WILL SUCCEED AS MUCH AS I BELIEVE!!!
S Sammut
Jul 30th 2009, 12:33
And... what about.. the Malta Indepdent front page article last Sunday...Two key people in SmartCity Malta resign + MEPA has no pending smartcity applications to process + other negative comments about the future and progress of this project.?
Who do we believe? Mr Gatt seem to be washing his hands off by saying that the goverement is a minority in this project...
Having said that, I wish and hope it is on track!
Galea. L
Jul 30th 2009, 11:59
Pull the other one Caludio Grech.
Ludwig Flask
Jul 30th 2009, 11:37
"SmartCity Malta CEO insists project on track" ... Yes ON TRACK TO HEAVEN!
Colin Camilleri
Jul 30th 2009, 11:34
@ Mr. Coppini. You did not understand my comment about betting companies. Please read again.
As for the good value for Malta is offering... well Mr. Coppini, I do not know you, but I have major exposure to enterprise companies that tiny Malta canonly dream about and I know how they work! With the IT revolution, there are no geographical boundaries, one can carry out the work from virtually everywhere, even from a yacht in the middle of the Atlantic if necessary! Please sell this competitiveness argument of malta to someone else.
May be you are missing what countries like Costa Rica, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Russia, Slovenja, China and India are offering. Big companies are running there operations exactly from these countries and these are western based spanning hundreds of thousands of employees!
Malta is years behind in terms of costs, reliability and standard of the infrastructure.
To implement such redundancies like you are saying will put the pressure and contractual obligation on Smart City and not the third party provider. These costs have to be relayed back to the leasing companies. Can smart city guarantee 99.9% uptime and cheaper than the above mentioned countries?
Time will tell.
Bertie Mallia
Jul 30th 2009, 11:25
The greyish colour of this elephant's skin seems to be getting lighter and lighter. As long as it does not become totally white, it could just need a good brushing up. Hot air unfortunately will make the situation even worse.
A Coppini
Jul 30th 2009, 11:09
@Colin C:
The issues you mention can be counteracted very easily. We have 3 major telecom companies, each one using its own infrastructure, and each one totally independent of the other. All it takes is for the SmartCity infrastructure to be connected to all three providers. If it is set up correctly, the downtime would be negligible.
Ditto for power. Think about it. When the power was out for a day, most ATMs, supermarkets (and the bank card readers there), landline phones and shopping malls were functioning normally. Power outages like the one we had earlier this year are a relatively rare occurrence. All it takes is good on-site backup power to be prepared for this.
You mentioned the betting companies. Most of these were not affected by the power outage, or the internet outage, because they (or at least the datacentres where their servers are kept) had all the necessary backups in place.
And yes, despite the fact that a vodka-coke now costs more than the pre-Euro days, Malta is still very good value for money for businesses focused on the western market.
Colin Camilleri
Jul 30th 2009, 10:22
Only time will tell whether this Smart City project won't be just another hot air! One thing keeps going through my mind... how can the government expect 5,600 new jobs, possibly from overseas companies if destination Malta is one of the most expensive places in Europe! How can these figures be realistic if the local service providers aren't in a position to offer redundancy to their Internet and Telephony services? How can one possibly invest in a country where the slightest glitsch on a turbine will leave the entire Island without power for a day!
Let's face it people, Malta has nothing to offer when compared to other EU countries. How can we expect foreign investment in Malta based on these hard facts?
If I were a betting company (and we are flooded with these at the moment) I would include this in the odds. 50/1 that Smart City won't make it in time, if at all!! 100/1 that the mayor shareholders will sell their stake at some point in time before the completion of the project. Only the government will stay to answer the questions to the maltese tax payers.