A funeral was held yesterday for Ismail Naseer, a long-serving civil servant well-known Male’ identity.
Naseer held various posts in the government including a lengthy period as a member of the People’s Majlis.
He passed away after a prolonged illness at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), aged 77.
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(0)The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation held a pre-bid meeting for Nasandhura Palace Hotel.
In a meeting held yesterday at Nalahiya Hotel, the ministry opened bids for eight parties and announced the offers.
Nasandhura was the first hotel ever built in Male’ and was opened in 1981. The hotel was mainly used for transfer and business passengers, but is currently being used as a clinic and quarantine centre for suspected swine flu cases.
(0)Dislikes(0)Part of a three storey warehouse in Male’ collapsed yesterday.
The warehouse was located on Machangoalhi Raidhebaamagu. According to MNDF Fire and Rescue, the collapse occured because the warehouse was overstocked, mostly with juice packets and condensed milk.
According to MNDF the warehouse contained 10 container-loads worth of goods.
(0)Dislikes(0)Former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has said that the climate summit in Copenhagen was a failure.
According to Miadhu, Gayoom thought the summit was a failure because the outcome was decided when leaders of five countries met and finalised the accord and without passing it at the main summit.
Maumoon also said that the two degree Celsius change in global temperature was not enough to prevent the threat of climate change.
(0)Dislikes(0)The parliamentary committee selected to review the Rf11.9 billion ($US926 million) mid-term budget for 2010 has recommended increasing its size by seven per cent to Rf12.6 billion ($US1 billion)
Presenting the committee report last night Dhiggaru MP Ahmed Nazim, chairman of the 15-member ad hoc committee, said its tasks were divided to focus on government revenue, expenditure, the public sector investment programme (PSIP), civil servants’ pay and budgets of independent institutions.
“The policy followed by the budget committee was that the government has submitted the budget the way that they want, so we do not want to make any changes to the budgets of any government institutions,” he said. “The reason is because the government should have the right to govern in accordance with their policies.”
Independent institutions
But, he added, in their meetings the committee learned that independent institutions did not believe they had “any financial independence” as they required approval for expenditure from the finance ministry.
Furthermore, the committee was informed that the funds allocated in the budget would not be enough to pay wages for the employees of independent institutions next year.
“When they are summoned to Majlis for not fulfilling their legal responsibilities, they will say you didn’t even give us a budget,” he said.
The committee therefore recommended an increase of Rf166 million (US$13 million) for the budgets of independent institutions, with Rf142million (US$11 million) of it to be spent on salaries and allowances.
Of the Rf166 million, he said, Rf105 million (US$8 million) will go to the judiciary and the committee recommended allocating Rf15 million (US$1.6 million) from the PSIP budget to build a judicial complex for the department of judicial administration.
Civil servants
The committee further recommended an injection of Rf617.6 million (US$48 million) to the budget to restore civil servants’ salaries to their former levels.
In its negotiations with the Civil Service Commission before pay cuts were enforced in October, the government agreed to restore salaries once its revenue exceeded Rf7 billion (US$545 million).
Nazim said the finance ministry informed the committee that revenue will reach Rf7.3 billion next year.
Of the total government expenditure, 70 per cent was recurrent expenditure and 46 per cent was expenditure on salaries for employees.
“The ministry of finance and treasury revealed that salaries for state employees were not budgeted based on the number of state employees,” he said. “They said the finance ministry does not yet know the correct number of state employees. The reason is that an accurate database containing accurate information of employees receiving salaries from the government has not been established.”
Revenue
“The members decided that they support the privatisation policy, but the committee believes the government has not pursued it in the best way,” he said, adding MPs criticised the sale of the majority stake in Dhiraagu, the government telecommunication company.
While committee members expressed doubt that revenue could be generated from taxation as the necessary legislation had not been passed, Nazim said the committee recommended expediting the passage of legislation on levying GST (goods and services tax) on the tourism industry.
The government proposed a bill on GST to parliament last week.
But, the report states, MPs felt Rf300 million (US$23 million) in revenue from taxing corporate profits was unlikely to materialise in 2010 as administrative matters had to be worked out after the bills were passed.
The third and final readings of the corporate tax bill and tax administration bill has been tabled in the agenda for 28 December.
Expenditure
Nazim said the committee noted that expenditure on payment of loans was higher than previous years as a schedule had been formulated to repay government debt.
While Rf113 million (US$9 million) was allocated for reducing the cost of goods and services, he said, details of this item was not provided.
The committee took note of a significant decline in expenditure on education and health, said Nazim, with a decrease of Rf400 million (US$31 million) and Rf700 million (US$54 million) respectively.
Moreover, the funds designated for economic development projects was only 7.9 per cent of the total budget.
The committee recommended the inclusion of Rf50 million for fishermen and Rf4 million for private media as subsidies in the budget.
If the committee’s recommendations are passed, over Rf800 million will be added to the budget.
Among a further 17 recommendations by the committee were requiring the government to submit a report to parliament in June containing details of the projects to be carried out under PSIP.
Moreover, the government should submit details of its public private partnership (PPP) projects every six months.
Following voting on the amendments recommended by the committee and proposed by MPs during the final debate, the budget will be put for a vote tonight.
(0)Dislikes(0)The Maldives is known for its high end world class resorts. Popular among the rich and famous, it seems the right amount of money can buy you some tropical privacy in the modern hectic world.
This privacy and seclusion of many Maldivian resorts is what makes them unique. This is what differentiates the Maldives from its competitors, and over the last few years many new exclusive resorts have sprung up.
These high end resorts, and the tourism sector as a whole, are an important part of the Maldivian economy: in 2008, the sector contributed 27.2% of the Maldivian GDP.
However several recent surveys suggest a vast majority of people are finding the price of a Maldivian getaway too expensive. Discussions on well-known travel forums such as Tripadvisor.com show that many guests and potential tourists are off put by the high prices.
Feelings on the issue are mixed. Many visitors, especially families, look for a cheaper option, while honeymooners are more willing to pay the extra dollars for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
There is demand from the high end markets for exclusive resorts. Ahmed Solih, permanent secretary for the tourism ministry noted that “expensive is a term dictated by demand & supply”.
Yet according to Solih, the development of a mid-market tourism sector in the Maldives catering to the huge global middle class has always been on the government’s agenda.
“We lease the land to the developer, but it’s the private sector that makes the decision on who they will cater for,” said Solih.
The many tour operators and resort developers opt to cater for the high end market due to the proven profitable returns.
Solih continued: “In the Maldives, each resort has its own power and water generation, each resort is self sufficient, and for every head staying, there are two staff and they also live on site. This makes resorts a very expensive operation to maintain,” he said.
However the recent regulations allowing guest houses on inhabited islands and the introduction of a national transportation system (the Maldivian Dhoni Services, or MDS) has the potential to open the country to the mid-market tourist sector.
Former Minister of Tourism Abdulla Mausoom said ” it is vital to maintain the exclusive image that we have created for the Maldives, but with careful management, a venture into the mid-market sector is important.”
Both Solih and Mausoom said that it was not just a matter of accommodation, and that the infrastructure had to be in place for this new market.
Currently, guests are whisked off to their destinations on expensive seaplanes or fast boats to their destinations. If the mid-market sector is to gain a foothold in the country, a proper transportation system needs to be in place.
Another potential market for the Maldives is the Indian and Chinese middle class. India currently has the largest middle class in the world consisting of nearly 300 million people, contributing US$380 billion to the consumer market.
With such a large market at such a close proximity, it is surprising that only 2.4 per cent of the country’s tourists arrive from India.
Speaking on this issue, Solih noted that ” it is true that the Indian market has huge potential. According to World Trade Organisation (WTO), one in five tourists are now Indian. The reason that Indians do not come here is because our current packages are not desirable for them.
“Most Indians would come for a couple of days, at the most, and they look for duty free shopping complexes,” Solih claimed.
Indians like many Maldivians, love to go shopping when they are overseas. If we are to cater for these new emerging markets, we must plan on what it is they are looking for.
“The success of the tourism industry in the Maldives has been due to carefully planned expansion,” Mausoom.
The current system is well established, and has reaped benefits for the Maldives. It is now up to the developers and tour operators to decide whether they are willing to cater for the new markets that are out there.
(0)Dislikes(1)The Maldives’ new children’s helpline has been inundated with calls despite only being launched in mid-November, on the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“We haven’t even started advocacy work and already we’ve received 400 calls in the first month,” said Munzir Ismail, consultant at the Department of Family and Gender. The Child Helpline call centre had been expecting around 270 calls.
Half the calls were requests for information, guidelines and procedures while 37 provided information leading to cases, 15 involving sexual abuse. Four of those calls were made by children themselves, three to report sexual abuse.
“This is the first time [the department] has received any cases from a child,” Munzir said. “Before the helpline we were notified by letters, government agencies and especially the police. But there’s never been a case reported by a child.
One call involved a child ringing up “to say she had been exposed to a lot of sexual abuse in a house and her parents had moved her for her studies. She had told her parents but nothing was done.”
The girl was relocated with a guardian, he said.
“I wasn’t expecting kids to call in the first month, but feedback from them has been that they think this is a good service. There is a lot of harassment in some households, physical and emotional, and for some children it can seem like the end of the road,” he explained.
Interestingly, almost 60 per cent of the calls were made from the atolls. 18 were prank calls while 14 had been silent, Munzir said, suggesting that perhaps children “were being hesitant.”
The social workers tasked with responding to the calls were mindful of making visits that would place the child in a position they might not want to be in at home, he said.
“We try to establish regular contact with the child if counsellors are required.”
The next step for the project was establishing advocacy programs and conducting awareness campaigns and workshops in the atolls on subjects like rights and sexual abuse, Munzir said.
“The Child Helpline is currently operating as a referral and intervention service, and while we have been using departmental counsellors we don’t have the capacity to offer a counselling service,” he added. “We are hoping to work with NGOs to operate the call centre and expand the service, and we’re willing to offer training.”
The toll free Child Helpline number is 1412
(1)Dislikes(0)The national badminton tournament for 2009 has come to an end with Mohamed Ajfaan Rasheed taking out the men’s first division title for the fourth year running.
Moosa Nashid and Nashih Sharafudheen won the men’s doubles while Neela Ahmed and Nejeeba Aishath won the women’s doubles.
The mixed doubles were taken out by Mohamed Ajfaan Rasheed and Neela Ahmed.
Ali Amir, the president of the badminton association, handed out all the trophies. Haveeru reported that as a gesture of support for the atoll teams, all playing equipment was gifted to them by the badminton association.
(0)Dislikes(0)The glass door of the Holiday Inn head office in Male’ was smashed yesterday, reports Haveeru.
A police media official said the glass door of the office at the Maarana building in Ameenee Magu was smashed and the investigation was ongoing.
Brett Wilson, general manager of Holiday Inn Male’, said a rock was thrown into the head office between 6am and 7am yesterday.
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