Skip to main content

Atolls and islands should start biding for investments



 Maldivian work force has two main concerns. That is:-

-They have to leave their family and come to Male’ in search of jobs, thereby creating lot of social and other problems
-Tourism industry benefits a few people and not the majority of the population.

In order to address the above problems, islands were leased to build resorts in number of atolls and MTDC was formed to provide an opportunity for majority of the population, a way to take ownership of resorts and provide a direct income source. The question is, is MTDC the right formula to address the above complaints?

People started to have doubts after firing of two experienced staff from Herethere Resort.

Imagine a different scenario. What if some of the islands to build resorts (or even other investments like fisheries and agriculture) were given to the atoll itself? (It is a known fact that many people from Addu work in tourism industry at various levels. Consequently, Addu atoll has a pool of experienced and skilled people who are capable of undertaking a project like Herethere and Villingli.)

In such a setup, the atolls can pay the s rent to the state and the profit from the resort or the investments can be used to develop the region.

Often, capacities are shown as a reason for not decentralizing economic and other opportunities. The ideal situation will be giving the ownership of investments to the atoll and assist them in areas they lack capacities. Ministries like Atolls Development can play such a role rather than acting as a controller of power (COP).

In terms of economic growth we are crawling compared to countries like India. If such a decentralized formula is used, I’m sure that we will start to run and it will be difficult for any country to catch up with us. Atoll and island development committees, should start biding for investments. If the rules are restricting it, change the rules.

A better approach would be the state assigning some uninhabited islands to communities for industrial purposes and aiding them to make it a success.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I like the idea of "Atoll ownership" of business ventures! It could be tried to see what problems it causes!
29 December 2007 at 09:48
Muna Mohamed said…
siadh. yeah. start forming public companies by atoll or islad people. that way we may be able to overcome regulation restrictions n start bidding!
29 December 2007 at 11:45
Anonymous said…
The issues u ve raised are very interesting! First, did u see any one who loves u country and who really wants to develop our beloved nation. We are hijacked by many corrupt political monsters. Sorry to say that.
They don’t have any vision, their only vision is how to elect for next election and how much money is required for that.
Can’t they see countries like Malaysia different towns are developed by different public companies? Eg: Puchong is developed by IOI group.
They only think for survival for next day not for the future. The main issue I can see is not 2 employee frm Herethere fired from their job. Tell me one single thing the industry (resort owners) do to develop their HR or good for the nation other than the fixed tax they pay.
29 December 2007 at 20:28
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Nation Sold Out!

We often talk about how corrupt are the politicians and those who are in high offices. I would say all of us are bonded through the chain corruption. First we sell our vote to the highest bidder, digging our own grave. The members than sell his/her vote to the Ultimate Buyer for money, position, power and so on The Ultimate Buyer, instead of meeting our demands, controls the members through the chain of corruption; we become helpless and our hopes for a decent life and a prosperous future gone. We cry, and whine saying how corrupt is the Majlis, the government and each and everyone who are in positions of power. After 21 days* we forget about everything and go about our lives and in between if some need arise, we beg the member or the Ultimate Buyer the member or the Ultimate buyer fulfills the need, on the promise of selling our vote again. It’s a vicious circle My request to Mps - to include vote buying/selling undue inducement as a criminal offence ...
7 comments
Read more

1000 islands, 1000 opportunities

Often we are bombarded with messages stating, we do not have any natural resources and therefore we are poor. Just because we do not have oil does not mean we lack natural resources to move our economy forward. When you think of it, the 1000 more islands are the natural resources we have. We are using less than 150 islands for industrial purposes. The rest is untouched and unused. Tourism has shown that each island can be turned into multi million dollar cash generating investments. However, the problem is policy makers seems unable to think beyond tourism. Policies in assigning islands for industrial purposes need to be reviewed and prevent over concentration on tourism in a single atoll. Within the atolls (including Kaafu and other atolls that has high concentration of tourism), islands can be leased to fisheries, agriculture, education, health, and many more other industries and make them easily accessible for people to go for jobs or to acquire goods and services. Build...
7 comments
Read more

Can we, women of this country, have some space to grow food and offer food security to our family?

Illustration by Aishath Rishtha   Translation: “When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money”  2014: Think about it? In 2014, I started writing a book using census and all available economic data on every atoll including data on how many uninhabited islands each atoll has. I thought that showing demographic, geographic and economic data will make people realize we need to do something about abandoning such rich resources for a congested living in Male’…. I shared the first draft with friends and mother thinking everyone will be very pleased. They weren’t happy. Major problem seemed to be - “just throwing data on people is not enough… we need to talk about some solutions. Take food security for one…..” 2016: Write about it? The book (Falhu Aliran Muy)- now twice bulky, with economic history (on the suggestion of Late Ali Hussain of Novelty Printers) and 11 interventions on future of ato...
Post a Comment
Read more