Smart City has yet to produce even one per cent of the jobs originally promised, Opposition ICT spokeman Michael Farrugia said yesterday.

The 12,000 square metre hi-tech office park has drawn criticism for failing to meet job generation targets. A 2007 report had estimated that the park would be employing over 2,500 people by this year and 5,600 by 2018.

Dr Farrugia returned to the topic during a press conference held yesterday. He took Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to task for dodging questions about the number of jobs generated by Smart City.

While it was good to hear of new companies set to open up at Smart City, the govern-ment needed to be forthcoming when it came to existing employment figures there, Dr Farrugia argued.

The Opposition spokesman said that a number of positive ICT initiatives had failed to come to fruition. He mentioned plans for a Microsoft Innovation Centre and the proposed e-learning platforms as examples of initiatives which seemed to have stalled.

Opposition Transport spokesman Joe Sammut was even more critical of Dr Gatt, who also has transport within his ministerial portfolio.

The things promised as part of the public transportation reform had failed to materialise, with Arriva’s IT system still not functional and people still left standing at bus stops.

Several scandals had also tainted the transport ministry’s work, Dr Sammut added.