Voice of Maldives Islands

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 land to create jobs a