Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/797847
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 12 MARCH 2017 26 Letters The futuristic internet city at Ricasoli is expected to generate a Lm230 million increase in the Maltese gross domestic product and an increase of over 10,500 jobs by 2018, a report by auditors KPMG has revealed. In the report seen by MaltaToday, KPMG forecast that wages, prof- its, taxes and the sale of residential property in Smart City are expected to generate anything between Lm218m to Lm296 million, without taking into a "super-multiplier effect" from the activ- ity generated in the internet city. Dubai's Tecom will develop a Smart City in Ricasoli, a mixed IT, residential and tourism complex, that is bound by a contractual obligation to generate 5,600 jobs, against penalties for defaulting. According to the confidential re- port by KPMG, Smart City will have a "strong relative impact" on the Maltese economy, starting from 0.2 per cent of GDP in 2007, to a peak of 7.1 per cent in 2014, and settling at 6.5 per cent by 2018. KPMY also forecast an increase of over 7,700 to 10,500 jobs by 2018, due to the project's direct generation of em- ployment and other multiplier effects. The direct job creation effects are likely to amount between 4.5-5 per cent of the entire labour force. In the more positive scenario, Smart City is expected to employ 7,600 work- ers by 2018. Employment is expected to increase gradually up till 2014, after which it will start to stabilise. Addition- ally, there will be an "element" of indi- rect job creation. Under the "contract- ed" scenario, the project is expected to employ up to 5,600 workers by 2018, but the figure increases to 7,700 when taking into consideration other jobs created indirectly through Smart City. By 2018, Government is also expected to reap anything between Lm24.7 mil- lion to Lm33.5 million in revenue from income tax, tax on profits and local spending, and duty on documents from the sale of real estate. The direct impact on the balance of payments is also projected to be beneficial once Smart City becomes operational. The net effect is forecasted at Lm6 million in 2008, to increase to around Lm133 million by 2018 at cur- rent prices. In the contracted scenario, the positive balance is expected to stand at Lm98 million by 2018. The KPMG report also highlights a list of ancillary benefits such as public open spaces, the rehabilitation of the depressed southern region where Smart City will be located, and other environ- mental and spill-over effects. … As the project gets underway, 306 jobs are expected to be created in the first year of development, while another 65 will be created through multiplier effects. Employment during development will peak during 2014, where 630 persons are expected will be working on the development project, while another 140 jobs will be created through inter- industry linkages. The report notes that if the employ- ment replaces the release of resources occupied in other projects such as the Mater Dei hospital, "the construc- tion industry should not be expected to overheat". In its first two years, the development will result in a net cost of Lm1.5 million every year for govern- ment, but this is expected to change into a cumulative positive impact of Lm6.6 million for the entire develop- ment period – with revenues averaging Lm317,000 between 2007-2018, and around Lm550,000 if multiplier effects are taken into account. The import of goods required for con- struction will result in a deficit on the external trade balance of Lm4.3 million per year (Lm5.6 million if multiplier effects are taken into consideration), peaking at a level of Lm12 million dur- ing 2014. News – 10 March 2007 Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. KPMG forecasts potential Lm300m in GDP from Smart City Natural and indispensable My letters may sound pedantic, lengthy or as mini-sermons but I am prompted by my conscience to read, write and try to drive home the importance and higher escutcheon our religious heritage and faith should occupy in our society, which is wilting ever so clearly to materialism and laxity of decency in our way of living. With faith being the topic of the day lately, it would not be amiss to state that every person, during his lifetime, experiences a self-crazed thought or linger- ing consideration about what is in store for us after our lifetime. So it is pragmatic to play a simple mental exercise of the utmost im- portance, wherein no draw can be obtained but only a resounding victory or a damned disaster. This applies especially to athe- ists, agnostics and indifferent people who with absolute sincer- ity may simply find it impossible to believe. A sane, sensible and sequential train of thought could be as follows: The desire to smoke carries with it a high risk of develop- ing certain fatal conditions, and so, if you smoke, you would be well advised to give up smoking, whatever the strength of your addiction. Similarly because your desire to believe the truth concerning God's existence or non-existence falls on the side of disbelief, it carries with it a grave practical risk should you be wrong. This is because the decision to believe in God carries with it certain eternal advan- tages and with its negation you therefore risk losing those eternal advantages. Ergo, you would be well advised to change your be- lief, however strong your desire to believe the conclusion that God and faith in Him does not exist. The change might go against your reason, but why be reason- able in a universe without moral thoughts? The only non-moral answers are passional. Having become atheist you would believe that you genu- inely and objectively ought to be reasonable and might be tempted back into disbelief, were it not for the fact that such a move would be self-contradictory, being predicated on God's existence. A sermon on justification by faith is proper, a defence of our right to adopt a believing attitude in religious matters, in spite of the fact that our merely logi- cal intellect may not have been coerced. Attainment of faith would be a natural and indispensable process. With faith the path of history can and should be changed, that the biblical vision of a redeemed world, as foreseen by the proph- ets, is not a mere utopia, but an achievable reality. A guiding ambition, a splendid reality, a mystic victory! John Azzopardi Zabbar Flood-relief works Gozo roads need mending I wonder what has happened to the flood-relief works that had been started before the last election for the Lija-Birkirkara-Balzan area. No trumpets have been blown to declare the work finished, as far as I know. In parts of Birkirkara and Balzan flood relief was badly needed. There were areas where solid sewage littered some streets when the drainage system was overwhelmed, which happened with any appreciable rainfall. The resultant mess left an unbearable stench when the waters receded. Has the project been concluded? There was hardly any rainfall last year to put it to the test, if the works are done. This year, though the rainfall has remained scarce, it has not been that dry and there were days when the flood-relief system would have been tested to some extent. How did the system cope with the floodwaters? Are residents satisfied, did they get any relief? Joe Borg Rabat I remember when most motorists were saying that driving in Gozo was much more satisfying in Gozo than in Malta, and that was because roads were much better kept at the time. Roads in Malta have not improved, but in the meantime those in Gozo have come to their level. It is no longer a pleasure to drive in Go- zo. Most roads are a mess, especially those which were tarmacked some years ago. And roadworks in Gozo follow a rather strange pattern apparently: they redo half of a road, and leave the rest wanting. Such as the main road to Sannat from Victoria, half of which was tarmacked some weeks ago, the rest left undone, though it is mostly broken up. At Xewkija, the road in front of the school is a sorry mess. What are the au- thorities waiting for to do it up? Motorists pay dearly in taxes: VAT on repairs, on the car's purchase, and on the purchase of car parts, and there is duty to be paid on the fuel used. Just where is their money going? Paul Tonna Birkirkara