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...

Here comes the stink bomb and political heavy weights are going to be busy with series of protests and court cases, radio tv programs regarding each and every issue under the sun except this one.  Even the media seems to be uninterested in the issue ( article below ). My question is it a fair deal for the investors as a whole, the people, and the country or for a select few? Note-You will find link to more laws related to the issue in the Laws page.

A headline in Haveeru screams that a certain tourism tycoon has sold his resort for 81 million dollars for 18 years; This 81 million dollar resort has 269 beds; That is 4.4 million dollar per year and  16,728.62 dollar per bed, per year. For that money he bought another resort for 40 million dollars. This 40 million dollar resort has 50 beds; That is 1.25 million dollar per year and 25000 dollar per bed, per year. He must be a really happy man after these deals. In an another event,  the Majlis  decided that in future, resorts will be charged 8 dollars per square meter as lease rent and  3.5 percent tax from goods and services sold to tourists- in return for extending resort lease period for 50 years. While this movie was being unveiled I thought the political leaders (except from the government) would cry foul as they did for Guantanamo Bay fiasco , firing of Army personal,  municipality land selling, airport deal, electricity hike, No province prot...