Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1256426
13 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JUNE 2020 OPINION WHEN we launched our vision to create the City Centre project in St George's Bay, St Julian's around four years ago, some- thing rather odd happened. Al- most instantly, having an 'opin- ion' on the value of the public land in question became a na- tional sport. All sorts of fantastical figures were launched in the public do- main with wild abandon. Politi- cians, NGO leaders, journalists and other men and women who should have known better spoke as if adding an extra hundred million euro here and another hundred there was, well, fact rather than fiction. I remember a particular newspaper headline putting the price of this piece of land at €300 million. At the time, we calmly took it all in stride, mostly in silence. We had faith that sanity would prevail. I admit, it was a mis- take. Repeated on a daily basis, and whirled on media merry- go-rounds, the fantastical fig- ures slowly but surely gained credibility. A point was reached when even to meekly ques- tion these astronomical figures would have branded you as one of the bad guys. A couple of years ago the first attempt to bring some sanity to issue was made. Government engaged Deloitte, one of the world's foremost auditing firms, to establish the real price of the land – objectively, scientifically and most of all dispassionately. Deloitte went to work and in a detailed and transparent report put the figure at €60 million. They did not stop there. Under oath in court, one of the firm's leading partners reconfirmed the figure. We thought that was that, end of the story – no more plus and minus of hundreds of mil- lion. Again, we were mistaken. Although the considered, ex- pert and sworn valuation of a leading global audit firm like Deloitte somewhat sobered up the debate, it still did not ex- tinguish the hysterical specu- lation. Irrigated by almost four years of spin and hidden com- mercial agendas, the lies had grown deep roots. Regardless of Deloitte's hard evidence, these lies still found eager gardeners who continued to tend to them. Yet the truth did win out in the end. A few weeks ago, the National Audit Office, declared that the price the db Group paid for the land was fair. "We main- tain," wrote the NAO, "that the approach adopted in establish- ing this value was well-reasoned and sound in terms of the meth- odology adopted, which factors contributed to the safeguarding of Government's interests in securing a fairer return for the site". In another clause of their report the NAO further con- firms that according to their fi- nancial model, the price we paid was fair and very much in line with their model. End of story, or rather fairy- tale. We are not in politics and less so are we politicians. We are en- trepreneurs running a group of companies with hospitality as our driving force. We employ 750 men and women in this sec- tion alone. We believe in this country and have always put our money where our mouth is. When the financial crisis hit in 2008 we still went ahead and invested €90 million to create the Sea- bank Hotel & Resort and the San Antonio Hotel & Spa. Today, as we face an even big- ger crisis, the COVID-19 pan- demic, we are renewing our belief in this country's potential with even more determination. We are not deterred from in- vesting €250 million in the City Centre project, one of the larg- est private investments by an in- dividual in the history of Malta. Economists estimate that our project will generate around €490 million in revenue to gov- ernment in the first decade of operations. Factoring in the multiplier effect this will rise to around €800 million. Apart from the jobs created during the building phase, the project will create 1,200 new permanent jobs. This article is about the price the public paid for our project, a saga which ended happily with the truth, the facts finally coming out in the final chapter. I shall conclude with another fact I cordially invite interested parties to challenge. The price we paid for this public land was not only fair but also the high- est ever per square meter for a comparable project in the last 20 years. Even when inflation is factored in. Now let's see who will rise to this challenge. Arthur Gauci DB's City Centre: To be fair Arthur Gauci is CEO of the db Group ist approach to learning. This means learners use technology to construct knowledge. Learn- ing will be more student-cen- tred, where the learner uses technology to learn through: inquiry (eg Webquests); im- age-based resources (eg MS Photostory, videocast, making documentaries); collaboration and sharing (ex. online commu- nities, social/learning networks, blogs, eTwinning, project-based learning in groups); presenta- tions and class-based activi- ties (effective use of interactive whiteboards, role play, online quizzes); games. When used as part of the ped- agogy, technology supports critical thinking, reflection and informed decisions. Different technologies give rise to these learning approaches and there are technologies for every type of learning which are rich in student participation. Taking the new norm into the future A new vision to what existed before is required so that the technology that governments have invested in for schools actually enriches the learning experience. The infrastructure has to be consistent across all schools and has to be top notch. It takes visionaries to foresee and plan for the future but it takes an over-arching school- wide plan of action to imple- ment all that technology has to offer in schools. This was a long-awaited wake up call. The need to collaborate with parents has never been felt as much as was now. Strong- er home-school links will help learners. As educators and par- ents we want what is best for each child. Every child is entitled to learn. No child must be left behind. With planning, preparation and commitment we can ensure that this evolving educational norm does not only produce better learners, but also does it in a spirit of fairness and sensi- tivity to all the situations in our homes.