Tecom Investments, the Dubai group that is the major investor in GO and SmartCity is considering investment in educational programmes and student exchanges in Malta, Gulf News has reported.
It said that in a move to expand its business activities and offer educational expertise globally, Tecom Investment's Education Cluster recently had talks with Maltese education companies whose representatives visited Dubai to discuss business opportunities.
The benefit to prospective students and the public would be a more diverse range of course offerings available in both countries due to the sharing of expertise, student exchange and the co-marketing of programmes, the newspaper said.
Students from the Mediterranean benefit from education expertise in Dubai and vice versa for GCC-based students.
"Smart City Malta has done a good job of creating a platform intended to serve educators, academic and educational institutions to look at business opportunities as well as forging sustainable partnerships with organisations in the overseas markets," said Dr Ayoub Kazim, Managing Director of Tecom Investment's Education Cluster.
Jin Won Choi, executive director of Strategy and Business Development at Smart City Malta, told Gulf News that there are three core areas where partnerships would be made: The co-marketing of programmes, development of new courses and the exchange of students.
With co-marketing programmes, Smart City Malta, the Dubai Knowledge Village (DKV) and Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) could market programmes that the others lack.
Malta would be able to penetrate those regions Dubai has not had good access to and vice versa.
Dubai, on the other hand, could offer programmes in Malta but also get a foothold in countries like Cyprus, Italy, Libya and Tunisia.
"Malta is strong in the service side of technology and the online gaming industry and education companies can offer such courses in Dubai," said Choi.
He described Malta as the Dubai or Singapore of the Mediterranean.
The fact that it was an English-speaking country meant that it can attract students from Russia, the rest of eastern Europe and Nordic countries in addition to North Africa and surrounding countries.
When developing new courses, both education clusters could offer office space for programmes that the other has expertise in.
The clusters would import lecturers to expand course offerings.
Students based in Dubai for example would not need to do their internships in the GCC — they would be able to find opportunities in the European regions.
At last week's event, Choi said 15 Maltese education companies were interested in doing business in Dubai while 40 Dubai companies had expressed interest.
"We have built a strong presence in the Middle East region and we have realised that by entering strategic locations around the globe, we can strengthen our partnerships."
More networking sessions are being planned in January.