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.

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. Building the best hospital, best college, best school, best hotel, best shoping complex, just in one tiny over crowded island does not make any sense. If the reason is concentration of all skilled labour in Male’, at least a nearby islands with boarding facilities could have been chosen to setup the best of the best to ease up the situation.

Just because all the islands that are nearby Male’, are resorts, there is no reason to cram everything into this tiny place. Resorts can be taken and used for other purposes just like k. villingli has been used. Even better option is to spread such services across the country in selected uninhabited islands and provide easy accessibility.

It should have come before the Muthaqadhim Party!

We may be more than 1000 year old country but, we do not have the backbone needed for any economic growth; that is a Nationwide Affordable Transport system. We do not have such a system, in spite of having a government Ministry named after transport. Being a small island state, we need two things.

-Access to bigger markets
-Mobility of labor and resources.

We cannot have those without, a nation wide affordable transport mechanism and port (air or sea) facilities. Absence of such a mechanism connecting islands that have hospitals or schools in an atoll, is one of the main reason that lead to congestion in Male’ area. It is cheaper to travel to Male’ than to the nearest island in your atoll.

Furthermore, it also makes traveling by air doubly expensive. Setting up airports without a ferry system does not make good economic sense. Within the atolls they do not travel, they do not talk and they do not exchange goods and services. Consequently, cash is generated in Male’ and ends up in Male’. It dose not stay long in any part of the country. Hence, in comparison, productivity is nil in 199 islands of the Maldives except Male’.

Actually this should have come before or at the same time as the Muthaqadhim party and the countless campaigns (literacy campaign, rebuilding island offices etc) afterwards. It is sad that none of our leaders realized the importance of such a mechanism or even if realized, did not do anything to change it.

One may think that such a mechanism will be very expensive for the state to implement. I disagree. For instance, the state is able to provide each and every atoll chief, with an expensive vessel for travelling. It lay idle most of the time. What if, the money is used to buy a vessel that can be used to give minimum ferry services within the atoll. The atoll chief could use the same vessel for traveling.

State money should first be used to ease hardships of the citizens and perks to top officials should come later if only we can afford it, after providing all the basic services.