Instability with the single currency is undermining Smart City Malta with certain potential clients, according to the ICT project’s boss.

A marketing initiative in India was met with scepticism once potential investors realised Malta was part of the eurozone, Smart City Malta CEO Fareed Abdulrahman tells The Sunday Times in an interview today.

“We obviously tell them that Malta is different from other Mediterranean members of the euro, we tell them to look at the country’s rating and its economic stability but their concern is Greece, Spain, Italy and the rest of Europe. The perception is there,” he said.

Mr Abdulrahman says Smart City was impacted negatively by the war in Libya and now by the euro crisis, right after things seemed to be looking up following the 2008 financial crash.

However, he is confident about the future, as his team is in advanced talks with some large companies whose move to Malta might be announced shortly.

For the first time, he also expresses uneasiness with how the political class is handling the Smart City project – seemingly pointing the finger at both the government and the opposition and complaining about the way the project is “taken for granted” at election time.

Labour leader Joseph Muscat is currently in Dubai to meet, among others, Smart City’s investors Tecom Investments.