SmartCity Malta Invests in Lifestyle for Knowledge Workers

Malta, May 21, 2009

Leading players in the knowledge-based industry the world over are consistently investing in enhancing the quality of working life of their knowledge workers. The primary asset in this industry is the knowledge of the workforce and employers are realizing that apart from providing the right remuneration they also need to deliver workplaces which fulfill the aspirations of their people.

This notion is central to the mission of SmartCity Malta which firmly believes that the nurturing of talent is the foremost priority of successful knowledge-based operators. This is the concept underlying the rationale for the development of SmartCity Malta as a knowledge-based township.

SmartCity Malta draws this knowledge from the legacy and experience of the globally successful clusters created and operated by Tecom Business Parks in Dubai, amongst which are the world-renowned Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, Dubai Knowledge Village and Dubai Studio City. These clusters today are host to over 5,000 different knowledge-based companies making them the largest managed commercial spaces in the world.

“Through our experience with the clusters created and operated by Tecom we have built the necessary understanding of positioning the knowledge workers needs at the centre of our long term plan. We develop infrastructure for knowledge workers and not vice-versa. High quality environs and workplaces enable employees to deliver and contribute more effectively towards their organisations’ goals” said Fareed Abdulrahman, CEO of SmartCity Dubai.

SmartCity Malta is building on this corporate legacy and developing a mix of services to be established in Phase One with the aim of creating a complete lifestyle destination for the knowledge workers of the ICT and media players to be taking up space therein. Phase One of SmartCity Malta will provide 20,000 square metres of Grade-A business space around the 100-metre diameter lagoon together with over 6,000 square metres of themed retail space and a number of residential units.

SmartCity Malta will be engaging local and international providers to establish operations in a number of service sectors including: a wide range of retail stores, food and beverage outlets with a special focus on healthy eating, flagship IT stores, health and well-being facilities, entertainment centres and banking services. These facilities, primarily located around the lagoon, will be partly situated in the ground floor of office buildings and hence will create a regional destination for the Maltese and visitors of Malta.

To date, SmartCity Malta has demolished all the factories in the previous industrial estate, cleaned the site, constructed an administrative block for its operations and in November 2008 commenced the construction of SCM 01 which is expected to be handed over to the first business partners in SmartCity Malta in 2010.