Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed has proposed an amendment to reserve airport shops and services for local business owners in an effort to staunch GMR’s “penetration into the local economy.”
The Adhaalath Party’s letter was sent to parliament’s national security committee which has begun debating whether to permit Israeli flights to land in the Maldives.
The High Court has backed a Civil Court ruling, validating GMR’s decision to terminate its contract with duty free shop Alpha MVKB.
A government plan currently under review would standardise the pharmaceutical field and bring more well-supplied pharmacies to atolls nation-wide, improving patient access to necessary and safe medications.
One of Gayoom’s most damaging legacies is that a paranoid Maldives finds itself among the top ten countries in the world noted for religious intolerance, writes Yameen Rasheed, “and building bridges is impossible when there are greedy political trolls ready to pounce on anyone willing to cross it.”
GMR shares on the Mumbai stock exchange fell 7.57 percent on Thursday on the back of a Civil Court ruling in the Maldives against its proposed US$25 Airport Development Charge (ADC), India’s Economic Times reported.
The Civil Court today ruled that the clause in the concession agreement with GMR violated the Airport Service Charges Act of 1978, which was amended in 2009 to raise the charge to US$18 for foreign passengers and US$12 for Maldivians above two years of age.
One particularly striking exhibit was a design for a ‘Star-Trekish’ high-tech underwater hotel with 21 rooms and positive buoyancy, able to be moored in a lagoon with minimal impact on the reef.
The new US$21.7 million fibre-optic submarine cable network project will bring “immense socio-economic benefits,” claims Dhiraagu, as the cable laying process begins.