Nationalist Party candidate for Gozo Luke Said, has highlighted the “deep frustration” expressed to him by business leaders and young entrepreneurs over the Gozo Innovation Hub in Xewkija.
Said noted that when the Gozo Innovation Hub was inaugurated on the site of the former Malta Dairy Products factory, it was heralded as the beating heart of a new digital revolution. Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Cloud Services, ministers spoke of “digital transformation,” and €9-10 million was spent (half of it EU funds) to turn Gozo into a high-tech centre of excellence.
He insisted that five years later, “the reality looks far less revolutionary.” At the start of the project, companies such as Noovle, a Google premium partner, and the Gozitan firm J2 Group have brought genuine innovation to the Hub; they remain the exception rather than the rule. Much of the building is slowly being filled with government departments, making the Hub feel more like a “civil service annex with ample parking than the engine of innovation it was meant to be.”
Said argued that “the promises that once accompanied the project have largely evaporated. Reduced rents for start-ups remain tokenistic. Incubation programmes and international outreach are practically non-existent. Public access is tightly restricted, with gates that seem more suited to a Cold War compound than a hub meant to foster creativity and collaboration.”
If the Gozo Innovation Hub is to live up to its name, “the current course must change.” Luke Said noted that what is needed is:
1. Active outreach to attract companies in targeted innovation sectors.
2. Affordable, accessible space for start-ups, with genuine rent reduction schemes.
3. Structured incubation programmes linking entrepreneurs to mentors, funding, and markets.
4. Integration with Malta’s national innovation strategy, ensuring Gozo plays a central role in the country’s tech growth (not just left to Indis, but connected to DIHub and the Malta Digital Innovation Authority).
5. Co-working spaces that allow local innovators to thrive without relying on cafes with unreliable Wi-Fi.
6. Public accessibility, so the Hub becomes a living campus, not a gated fortress.
“On this, we are in agreement with the Gozo Business Chamber. In their recent Budget proposal, they called for the Innovation Hub to be reconfigured into modular offices and hot-desking stations, rebranded as a vibrant Tech and Business Hub with targeted outreach and regular networking activity,” said Luke Said. “They also proposed a dedicated start-up space in Gozo, in partnership with Malta’s DIHub and Digital Innovation Authority, ensuring that new companies are actively directed here rather than concentrated only in Malta.”
He concluded by saying that “this is exactly the kind of vision Gozo needs: practical, achievable, and aligned with the Hub’s original purpose. Without it, the site risks remaining little more than a €10 million office block with an ambitious name, a journey from cheeselets to code to cubicles, in unfortunate Maltese style.”
Screenshot and video – Luke Said