Instead of relying “heavily” on Maldives traditional industries such as fisheries and tourism, the Ministry of Economic Development is exploring additional ways through which economy may be diversified, said Minister Fayyaz Ismail.
Speaking at a conference revolving around discussions in exploring business opportunities between Maldives and India, mainly Kerela which is one of the closest states to interact with Maldives on a daily basis, Fayyaz stated that the close cooperation between Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led to a “very good” development between both countries within the past 11 or so months.
Further, the minister said that both leaders have a special bond that has been instrumental in “creating this atmosphere”, besides the cultural and traditional relationship shared between India and Maldives.
Highlighting that there are a lot of opportunities in Maldives, Fayyaz stressed that we are not only looking for the development of opportunities, but to explore “beyond our own horizons”.
“We at the ministry are trying to transform our economy in two main ways, one is obviously the diversification of our economy. We have been relying heavily on our traditional industries such as fisheries and tourism. While we will continue to strive to improve and develop those industries, our intention is to see what would be the possibilities of diversifying our economy.”Economic Minister, Fayyaz
The Economic Ministry is further looking into ways to modernize the country’s economy, to alter certain laws and regulations which are believe to hinder the current growth of the country’s businesses.
Work is also being carried out to attract more foreign investments to the Maldives, said Fayyaz, adding that the country's legislative agenda aims to transform the current legal environment and relations to doing business in Maldives.
“We hope to see these changes happening in the coming months. When we do that, we believe that this will provide more credibility for our own businesses and also any foreign party that looks to do business with us.”Economic Minister, Fayyaz
Speaking on issues surfacing for both local and foreign investors during the past couple of years, Fayyaz assured that the ministry intends to reverse the challenges and establish credibility within the international community, in its work to prove the country’s credibility as an important and “good place” to invest in.
Further, Fayyaz stated that there is “huge” potential between the economies of both countries especially in the quest to diversify it.
Despite the cultural relations and strong bonds, there have been observed a lack of interactions due to which both countries have not been able to learn of the available opportunities in both countries. As such, the people of both countries must explore the possibilities and learn the each other’s mindset.
“More importantly what I would like to see is collaboration between Maldivian businesses and Indian ones to explore new avenues where mainly to diversify our economy. Medical tourism, processing food are possibilities which we would like to look beyond our horizon. Medical tourism is something we see as a huge potential, Maldives already having established itself as a very attractive tourist destination, I think by putting in a bit more effort and investing in medical tourism, there will be a huge area of interest.”Economic Minister, Fayyaz
In addition, the ministry is seeking new technologies of creating value addition to products that the country features such as fisheries, and more development in the agricultural sector.
While the current population of Maldives nears 400,000, we have a tourist population of around 1.5 million, coming each year, which will believably double over the next decade or even more than that, said Fayyaz.
At the event, insights were given on the available opportunities in Maldives and also, knowledge was exchanged on how to go about doing business in the country.
With further interactions with the business communities, Fayyaz expressed his hope that participants were able to take from the positive outlook, and that ultimately it will turn into “fruitful physical engagement” in the economy.
Expressing hope that further engagements will happen between both countries, the minister went on to extend gratitude to the Indian Ambassador to Maldives, Sanjay Sudhir, who in the minister’s words, “goes beyond his call of duty with his affection to the Maldives and our people”.
While certain sectors were discussed through which huge opportunities are possible to establish trade links and economic as well as commercial contracts between both countries, participants shared some concerns and their insights on business growth through some sectors such as food processing, tourism as well as the health sector.
