The President’s Office (PO) has announced China will give the Maldives 50 million yuan (US$8.2 million) in grant aid “for the implementation of developmental projects and the advancement of public services.”
The announcement was made following a meeting between Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon and President Abdulla Yameen with the Chinese Ambassador to the Maldives, Yu Hongyao.
The grant aid comes at a time the Maldives is facing dire economic circumstances, with the government unable to afford its huge recurrent expenditure on a bloated civil service and failing to pay millions of dollars owed to state-owned companies for services such as oil and electricity.
The State Trading Organisation (STO), the country’s main importer and wholesaler which brings in most of the Maldives’ basic commodities such as food and oil, warned of oil shortages in November after it was unable to pay a US$20 million debt to suppliers.
The central bank eventually bailed out the STO by drawing on the Maldives’ dwindling foreign currency reserves, but warned the country was on the verge of needing to print money, while state debt reached MVR 30 billion (US$1.9 billion).
The US$100 million fishing industry is about to be hit in 2014 by the decision of the country’s top export partner – Europe – refusing to extend the Maldives’ duty-free status due to its failure to ratify international conventions on freedom of religion and women’s rights.
The government this week said it would look to sell fish to the Arab and Malaysian markets by certifying Maldivian fish as ‘halal’.
The Maldives’ other major industry, tourism, meanwhile flat-lined in 2012 with the number of tourist bed nights falling 0.1 percent, even as annual arrivals continued to increase, this week topping one million.
The Tourism Ministry revealed that Chinese tourists now represented 30.8 percent of the total arrivals to the Maldives, the highest arrival from a single source market, however the Finance Ministry observed that this had not been matched with new revenue.
“As the most number of tourists to the country now come from China, we note that the low number of nights on average that a Chinese tourist spends in the Maldives has an adverse effect on the tourism sector’s GDP,” read the Finance Ministry’s ‘Fiscal and Economic Outlook: 2012 to 2016’ report.
The enthusiasm of the Maldives’ usual aid partners dwindled over two years of democratic uncertainty following President Mohamed Nasheed’s ousting by mutinying police in February 2012, while others – particularly Scandinavian countries lost interest once the Maldives graduated from ‘least developed’ to ‘middle income’ in 2011.
This was to some extent offset by extensive funding for climate change adaption and mitigation efforts across the country, ranging from waste management to desalination projects, that followed the Maldives’ grandstanding at international climate events.
President Yameen has pledged to tackle the Maldives’ economic woes by exploring and drilling for oil, as part of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) campaign pledges.
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The EU revoking the duty free status for fish is a direct result of Anni and his white/coconut supporters. These are traitors. These are the same people who called for a boycott of Maldivian tourism. These whites/coconuts should be tried for treason.
Barely enough to pay phone bills of the SC Judges.
Perhaps only Qasim can drill - think about it
Nasheed was not ousted and he had resigned himself to get away with his incompetency to run the nations and get way with his crimes by getting sympathy from the people.
However majority of Maldivian had said no to the guy and he is a gone case now.
Now GMR will not pay money to run MDP and neither they will fund Nasheed.
Wow! The full 8 million dollars, we're saved!
Don't spend it all on Rolexes and yachts this time will you? Spare a few dollars for the poor islanders. Alright, if you must, get them to write some begging letters for medical and other reasons.
For 30 years we saw grant aid, free money, aid in kind, loans and all sorts of goodies flow into the country. Where did all that go? You don't have to look ver far. Just look up from the streets of Male. Those skyscraper owners did not get their cash from their government salaries, you know!
The good old days are back. Some people are wringing their hands and salivating over the free dollars. Good work Yaantey.
Democrat is wrong. Maldives government didn't comply with regulations required for EU duty free status. This is a case of cause and effect. You don't do what you say you're going to do, you don't get the reward. It's very simple!
Who has been running the government since Feb 2012? All you fools blame MDP for Maldives financial problems. It's been almost 2 years since he was president.
If you want infidel (EU, US, Commonwealth, UN, etc.) money and trade privileges, you have to follow their rules. They'll stop telling you what to do when you stop putting your hand out for money.
What are they getting for it. Airport / LPG Terminal , STO contract ?
8.2 mill usd for free, so what's the catch.
This would keep the country afloat for a 2 years or so, if the status quo isn't changed.
Thanks to the yellow skinned hordes,we are saved,also thanks to another gayoom who vision knows no bound
Hero, you must be a kind of your own to believe that Yameen won by a "majority". Are the Chinese proposing to return the $8mil (plus a little interest) to Yameen?
Sanfa.
Then how did Yameen won. I guess its a mistake and majority had voted to Fili Nasheed. ?
F--k off . Nasheed will never be able to smell the presidency ever in this country .
he had robbed this country within a short period time.