A total of 27 new factories comprising an area of 25,000 cubic metres are being built at Hal Far and Mosta.
Government Investments Minister Austin Gatt said this was a Lm13 million project financed by Malta Industrial Parks (MIP).
MIP chairman Alec Mizzi said two sites at Hal Far would be dedicated to the general manufacturing industry, one site, also at Hal Far, would be for the pharmaceutical industry and a site at Mosta Technopark for electronics.
He said five firms were invited to take part in a call for expressions of interest for the designs of these factories for which they were encouraged to use innovative materials and make the best use of spaces, possibly going multi-storey.
Four of the five firms submitted designs and, following a detailed analysis, the designs of TBA Periti were chosen because they were judged as striking the best balance between innovative concepts, flexibility and construction costs.
The designs propose five storeys with two underground parking levels, two production floors and a top floor with business space that would be mostly used by laboratories and for research and development.
Development applications would be submitted to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in September and the first factories would be finished by the end of next year.
Alex Torpiano, from TBA Periti, said the designs offered flexibility, faster and cleaner construction, made maximum use of land and would result in lower maintenance costs. A lot of attention was paid to aesthetics, he added.
He said access to the factories was being proposed via a ring road with a buffer zone between one factory and another. Access to the upper floors was by ramp and through a gantry structure or hydraulic platform lift. The concept of modular construction panels was used.
Dr Gatt said manufacturing would always remain important as a pillar of the economy. However, it was constantly changing and its success in Malta depended on finding niches that kept manufacturing relevant to the way the economy was developing.
To strengthen this success, the package offered to investors had to continue being improved and a choice of finished factories of a higher quality would be an important factor in such a package. The minister spoke on the need for a stock of high-standard factories that could be adapted to the needs of investors.
Dr Mizzi said MIP managed more than a million cubic metres of factory space, incorporating over 600 factories. Since 2005, it has given 70,000 cubic metres of space for new and expansion projects.
He said that since forecasts showed there would be demand for new factories with quality being a determining factor, the MIP had also launched an upgrading exercise of the zones with the help of EU funds and was currently working on Bulebel and Hal Far. Ta' Dbiegi, in Gozo, was upgraded last year.