The Chamber of Commerce has raised concerns over the possibility of change of use at the proposed American University of Malta.

Government plans announced so far lack detail on how this will be prohibited, it said in a statement.

“Such safeguards are rendered all the more necessary in view of the prime sites being committed.”

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced last week that the campus of the AUM will be split between a site at Dock 1 in Cospicua and a reduced footprint at Żonqor, Marsascala. A storm of protest had broken out over the government’s original plan to use 90,000 square metres of land in an outside development zone, now scaled down to 18,000.

The chamber said it remained in favour of this foreign direct investment project “given that it is planned in the field of education.”

Education is one of the sectors identified for growth by the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Industry in its Economic Vision for 2014-2020.

It stressed that the implementation stage is a crucial one and called for attention to detail so as to ensure that the environmental impact is kept to a minimum.

“Mepa should establish a set of sustainable development standards for all projects to follow, but certainly for ones of such magnitude.”

Positive sustainable practices should be implemented by the investor to neutralise the environmental cost and the government should ensure that the investor carries out such practices, the chamber added.

“This could include the use of recycled materials in the Żonqor building, as well as other energy efficiency measures that would reduce the building’s carbon footprint on the environment.”

The chamber has said on several occasions that the regeneration of dilapidated, underused urban zones or buildings must take precedence over the continued use of land lying outside the development zones.

It also called on the government to ensure the claims that the project will have a positive impact on the economy materialise, and to set milestones for the efficient monitoring of these goals.

While acknowledging that Cospicua will benefit from the economic and social regeneration from this FDI project located in the underused building, the chamber insisted “the project cannot be expected to single-handedly solve all the area’s problems”.