SmartCity expansion

SmartCity CEO Fareed Abdulrahman says the organisation is currently finalising plans for the development of a new ICT commercial precinct to complement forthcoming SmartCity developments in Malta and India.

Speaking exclusively to GBS Times, Abdulrahman confirmed the latest development would be located  in either the Asia Pacific or MENA region. "The new park will be IT specific, much like the one in Kochi will be," reveals Abdulrahman.

"It will be bigger than our Malta development but probably not quite as big as our precinct in India. There is also the possibility that the park will only be utilised by one company. The advantage for large multinational companies in having all their employees in the one place is improved communication."

The development of a third SmartCity ICT precinct is big news for the organisation, which only recently begun work on its Malta media and ICT campus and its Kochi IT park in Southern India. Abdulrahman says the organisation has been "thinking outside the box" when it comes to locations for expansion.

"The main reason we chose Kochi was due to the extremely high literacy rates of the region's population base," says Abdulrahman, who adds that in terms of future expansion, the organisation is assessing locations in China, Korea, Thailand and the Phillipines.