Day: June 21, 2010

DRP will not honour “shady deals” made over Male’ International Airport

Vice President and Spokesman for the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Ibrahim Shareef has said the DRP will not honour “shady deals made according to vested interests” if the party comes to power in 2013, referring to the government’s privatising of the country’s airports.

The government has shortlisted three parties to run Male’ International airport and will select one over the next 3-4 days.

The parties include Aéroports de Paris Management Company of France (ADP) and Turkish company TAV Airports Holding Company, Indian company GVK Airport Developers in partnership with Swiss Flughafen Zurich AG, and GMR-KLIA.

Shareef expressed concern that the government’s efforts to privatise state assets, such as the airport, were not occurring with parliament approval.

“Parliament is in the process of amending a public finance bill that will stipulate the government has to put these decisions before parliament,” he said.

“If the governing party will not accept this, then the new [DRP] government will not honour this type of shady deal. We will not honour shady deals – only lawful deals according to parliament.”

Shareef said the airport was currently “making the government money”, and the asking price it had set “is so low. [The deal] is riddled with corruption,” he alleged. “If the government has nothing to hide, it has nothing to lose from asking parliament.”

Minister for Civil Aviation and Chairman of the Privatisation Committee Mahmoud Razee told Minivan News that “as far as I understand we are proceeding according to the public finance act which is currently in force. Parliament legislates but actual delivery is up to the executive.”

It is the opposition’s “prerogative to say what they wish,  but the reason why experienced and reliable companies are involved in this bid is because they believe that this is a viable project.”

The Male’ airport privatisation deal would be for 25 years, extendable by another 10 years, and would require a minimum level of investment towards upgrading the airport in the first three years to meet a certain level of service.

“A certain percentage of the service charge will to go to the government, and in addition [the operator] will also prescribe a percentage of the revenue,” Razee said.

Within three years, the government would expect a new terminal on the eastern side of the airport islands, up to international standards, and the completion of aero bridges (passenger walkways), effectively doubling the annual capacity of the airport from 1.6 million passengers to 3 million passengers.

The intention was to enable fast growth of the country’s tourism market, he explained.

“It’s bound to grow – particularly the Chinese and Indian markets,” Razee said. “We’ve already received applications from Air Asia and several Chinese carriers.”

Meanwhile, the government yesterday signed an agreement with Dubai-based company Supreme Fuel Trading to manage Gan airport for 30 years, in an agreement intended to hasten development of the southern region of the Maldives by allowing 747 class aircraft to land.

“At the moment the largest aircraft that can land [in Gan] is the 767 and the Dash 100-200,” Razee said.

The government has also received a proposal from GMR to upgrade Hanimadhoo airport and increase tourist traffic to the northern atolls.

For a country dependent on international tourist arrivals, the airports are the ventricles of the Maldives economy. Addressing concerns that privatising them would loosen the government’s control over these critical assets, Razee observed that all the interested parties being considered “have experience running many international airports”.

“Security will continue to be overseen by the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), and the airport will be certified by civil aviation authorities irrespective of who is running the airport,” he explained.

Tourism in the Maldives is showing signs of steady growth, with an increase of 20 percent in the first five months of 2010 compared to last year.

Arrivals for first five months of this year were seven percent higher than for the same period during the boom year of 2008.

Meanwhile, the 91 resorts in country had a steady occupancy rate of 82.3 percent.

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Repatriation of castaways delayed by lack of documents

Police Sergeant Abdul Muhusin has said police are holding 25 castaways in police custody in Dhoonidhoo, while waiting for their respective countries to identify them and provide necessary documents.

Muhusin said that all the castaways would be repatriated when they are identified by their countries.

”The latest castaways (six Somalians) who were rescued on May 16 are currently being kept in Dhoonidhoo custodial,” Muhusin said. ”They were brought there after they were discharged from hospital.”

Muhusin said that many of the castaways carried no passport or identity cards, or any document clarifying who they were and where they were from.

”That’s why it’s taking some time to repatriate them,” Muhusin said.

Police said that the 25 castaways included seven people who were saved on December 1 last year, five people rescued on December 5, seven people saved on May 12 this year and the six men recently discovered in a dinghy near Makunudhoo.

”Police are investigating everyone,” Muhusin said. ”They have claimed that they were out for fishing.”

”They have not been arrested,” Muhusin emphasised.

State Home Minister Ahmed Adil said the investigation of the castaways was still ongoing and he had no idea when they could be repatriated.

State Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem said that the Somalian government and Maldivian government together were trying to identify all the men who claimed to be Somalians.

”We have sent the Somalian government pictures of the castaways,” Naseem said.

He said he had no information about the Iranian vessel which was found in Maldivian waters in May, referring Minivan News to the home ministry

However, Adil said he had no information about Iranian vessel.

In May the Maldives Coastguard rescued an Iranian fishing vessel in Maldivian territorial waters, discovering that the crew have been deprived of water and food for several days.

Another Somalian boat was found with a crew of six men on board drifting near the island of Makunudhoo in Haadhaalu Atoll.

Makunudhoo islanders who rescued the men said it appeared they had been drifting in the tiny 12-15 foot vessel for three months without food or water.

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Guantanamo Bay detainees not a threat to Maldives national security: Zuhair

Bringing two former detainees from the Guantanamo Bay facility to Maldives is not a threat to the country’s national security, said President’s Office Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair in a statement to Miadhu Daily.

The Maldives security forces are well equipped to manage the detainees, according to Zuhair who also said there is no date set for the arrival of the detainees.

The cost of hosting the detainees in the Maldives would be borne by the US government, Zuhair told Miadhu, and the US government would confirm the detainees are innocent and provide travel documents.

While staying in the Maldives they would obtain legal visas, he said.

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Separated husband snatches daughter and flees on speedboat

A husband who snatched his one year old daughter from his separated wife and fled on a speedboat to Nolhivaram was arrested on Friday.

The man, who separated from his wife and now lives on a different island, took the infant from her mother and fled on a speedboat from Kurinbi to Nolhivaram in Haa Dhaalu Atoll.

An islander told Minivan News that the man arrived at Kurinbi on Friday during prayers, while all the men were at the mosque.

He said that the man came along with a group of people.

”Some of the men stayed as his bodyguards,” the islander said. ”He came with two men and grabbed the baby while the baby was with its sister.”

The islander said the two men who came with father of the baby held the sister’s hand while father grabbed the child.

”The couple lived in Nolhivaram and the woman is a islander of Kurinbi – when they separated she came back to Kurinbi,” he said. ”It’s been five months now she has been trying to get divorced.”

An islander from Nolhivaram familiar with the matter said the man rented the speedboat and went to his wife’s island to try and bring his child back with him.

He claimed the women took the baby when she left without informing her husband.

”The father sometimes went  to Kurinbi to see his daughter, but his wife never showed her,” he said. ”So he went to Kurinbi and brought his daughter back.”

He said that the woman left Nolhivaram last year December.

”Her husband did not like her speaking to other people or going to other houses,” he said. ”She did not like it that way, that is why she left, as far I know.”

He said that the women had worked as a school teacher during her time on Nolhivaram.

”His family and everyone advised him not to take his daughter like that,” the islander said.

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Tourist arrivals to the Maldives up 20 percent on same period last year

Tourist arrivals at Maldives have increased by nearly 20 percent in the first five months of 2010 compared to last year, according to the Tourism Ministry.

338,582 tourists visited Maldives between January and May, compared to 282,518 tourists during that period last year, an increase of 56,064 tourists according to Department of Immigration figures.

Tourist numbers increased by over 35 percent for the month of May, from 43,154 in 2009, to 58,324 this year.

Tourist arrivals for first five months of this year are over seven percent higher than for the same period during the boom year of 2008.

Maldives’ 91 resorts had a steady occupancy rate of 82.3 percent.

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Five men arrested for assault on Hithadhu in Seenu Atoll

Five men have been arrested on Hithadhu in Seenu Atoll for attacking another group of men while they were watching world cup inside an abandoned house, reported SunFM.

SunFM reported that three men were injured during the incident.

One of the three men was seriously injured and was treated in the Intensive Care Unit of the local hospital.

Police are further investigating the case.

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Dead man found floating in sea near Thimarafushi

A dead man was found dead floating in the sea of Thimarafushi in Thaa Atoll, reported SunFMlive.

The Radio Station identified the man as Isthiyaz Mohamed, 29, of Raastha on Thimarafushi.

Police said the cause of death was yet to be determined and there were no injuries found outside his body.

SunFM reported that the doctor had said the cause of the death was “not due to drowning.”

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Five men arrested for using suspected narcotics

Police have arrested five men with suspected narcotics in Addu Atoll, report police.

Police reported that four of the five men were arrested while they were using suspected narcotics inside a house in the forest on Hithadhoo in Addu Atoll.

The other man was arrested for allegedly being drunk, reported police.

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Government cannot be complacent on economic reform: Nasheed

President Mohamed Nasheed has said the government cannot be complacent in implementing economic reform, following the release of the IMF’s Country Report on the Maldives.

Speaking in his weekly radio address, President Nasheed said while the report had lauded certain financial achievements, including “painful expenditure-reducing measures including public sector wage cuts and reducing electricity subsidies,” as well as increasing the airport tax rate and proposing the draft bill on goods and services on tourism.

However although the IMF report had noted that the economy stabilised, the IMF “urges to continue with the cost cutting measures”.

The IMF had said that failure to do so would result in “large fiscal imbalances and macroeconomic instability”, Nasheed said.

The President noted that IMF’s November 2009 Public Financial Management Performance (PEFA) report had identified several failures in financial management in the previous government.

The President, pointed out that according to the IMF report, there were “significant variations between the estimated budget figures and actual revenues” leading to an unsustainable fiscal situation.

Meanwhile, he said, government debts had trebled standing at 54 percent of GDP in 2008.

Wages would increase as a result of the government’s cost-cutting measures and efforts to address failures in financial management, he explained.

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