SmartCity in Dubai is set to lose its executive director for corporate finance Teddy Maroun.
Mr Maroun has held the position for a year but his contract is not being renewed for 2010. SmartCity Dubai said Mr Maroun left the company in a voluntary and planned manner and has been succeeded by a new executive director as planned.
It has been a frustrating year for SmartCity in many ways. SmartCity Malta has also seen the departure of a number of key personnel, including its CEO and its chief financial officer, although it recently issued the tender for the construction of Infrastructure civil works for Phase One.
And the SmartCity Kochi project is also in jeopardy and may be called off. A week ago, Smart City Dubai served an ultimatum to the Kerala government saying the proposed Rs.1,500-crore Smart City Kochi IT project could not be kept hanging ‘endlessly’, following a board meeting. The foundation stone for the park at Kochi was laid in 2007 and was to create 90,000 jobs. But the project has ground to a halt because of problems with the allocation of the 12 per cent freehold rights to Smart City Dubai. The Indian chief minister for the state has claimed that the real problem is lack of funds.