Voice of Maldives Islands

Policy of an inclusive fair economic agenda would be No island left behind No citizen left behind Ensure every citizen have an equal opportunity to grow, to prosper and contri bute to development of their islands and atoll communities. Recent Amendment to Regulation on operating tourist hotels in the Maldives , by Tourism ministry prohibits Islands without 24hrs electricity, police station, and health services running tourist hotels! As per statistics of Maldives police service, 107 islands in Maldives do not have Police presence. The result is excluding 98,329 Maldivian citizens from earning an income from mid-market tourism opportunities.  The regulation will also limit competition (guess to who)  while encouraging forced migration and depopulation by making it tough for 58% of islands to create jobs within the community. Call upon government to reconsider the amendments and not to let few oligarchs hijack economic policy!  Ef...

Dear All, Would appreciate if you could complete the Migration and Atoll Development survey , Maldives. The results of this survey will be used in the book "Falhu Aliran Muy" on migration and development of atolls in the Maldives. Thank You

Aren’t you surprised at people who are surprised by the very predictable results of elections in the Maldives? Think of an island. In practice, do they have permission to carry out any activity mentioned in decentralization law to maintain or develop their island?   The central government in Male’, is one and only way through which provision of even basic services necessary for humans to survive in an island, is allowed. Islands can’t even dump their garbage, provide water, electricity, even housing plots, without the direct approval of central government.    The island councils elected by the people, have been reduced to the role of a messenger to beg and plead, to central government , on behalf of people, thanks to the Local Government Authority given the task of empowering them! In Maldives everything works backwards or just the opposite of what is written because Maldives is where even good theories on governance or anything else, comes to die!...

Out of curiosity checked the   100 day target   of transport from Ministry of transport   website ; since mobility of labour and goods are a must to create a vibrant economy in any place. Not to mention saving the expense people from islands incur on transport, in order to get basic services such as medical from regional hospitals. By looking at above picture it appears that, only 1 out of 5 interventions on transport sector involves islands. The rest is targeted to Male' region. Is it because islands and atolls meet the basic criteria with regard to availability of transport, ie; basic ferry service? Transport is just one key sector. One must wonder how much attention or percentage of interventions are targeted to atolls from other sectors? Hope it won't come to only 20%  for 197 islands of Maldives. 

More than a decade ago Government made announcements regarding development of Hulhumale’ and Laamu atoll . At that time Hulhumale is yet to be formed by land reclamation while Laam atoll has more than 600 hectors of readily available land to offer, without spending a single cent. Since the projects are similar in nature, one would expect similar approaches towards its implementation.   However here’s how it went…..  The announcement of Hulhumale’ project, came with quick action points that made it a success; Monetary commitment : Committing 30 million dollar or 384 million rufiyaa to land reclamation alone. By 2007 government was getting ready to arrange funding of 700 million dollars (8 billion ruffiya for the 2nd phase of the project!!  Corporatizing development : Formation of Hulhumale’ Development Corporation   Availability of basic services as in Male’ : transport , piped water, sanitation, electricity, …. Facilitating commercial use of la...