The Privatisation Unit has referred to the Economy Ministry questions about bids received for the logistics hub in Ħal Far, which closed on Monday.
The ministry did not reply to questions made on Monday about whether bids were received for the international call, which was also published in the EU journal. No updated information was available on the Privatisation Unit’s website.
Economy Minister Chris Cardona, stopped as he entered a conference at the Malta Stock Exchange yesterday, could only confirm there were “bids” but was unable to say how many or who they were from.
“There were bids – I don’t know how many – but we don’t know if there were any bids that would be realisable. The Privatisation Unit will now go through a temporary process of evaluation and we will see whether there are bids which conform with the government’s plan for a logistics hub,” he said.
This was the second request for proposals for the hub after there were no bids to an identical call issued last October and which closed on January 13. The request, issued through the Privatisation Unit, said the eventual operator would be given a non-renewable 65-year lease of the 45,000-square-metre site to be used as either a Customs-free zone or a Customs warehouse. The bidders had to pay a €10,000 submission fee and the bid bond would be €350,000.
Interested parties would have three years in which to construct the hub – creating a maximum 1.4 million-cubic-metre warehouse – on the site presently being used as a Customs groupage complex. The 34 operators working from the Ħal Far groupage complex were assured by Dr Cardona last October that their operations would remain unaltered.
The government wants to introduce logistics activity to Malta and, according to the call, the idea was not to shift existing operations to the new site but to attract new activity.
Under the terms of the bid, the Privatisation Unit must acknowledge receipt of all the proposals within seven days.
An ad hoc evaluation and adjudication committee would be set up to evaluate the technical and financial assessment of the proposals during the competitive process.
The government will have absolute discretion in deciding whether to accept the committee’s recommendations.