Tag: maldives economy

Maldives to begin oil exploration with assistance of research vessel

A research vessel with 25 scientists on board has arrived in the Maldives to conduct oil and gas exploration research.

The German research vessel ‘Sonne‘ which came to the Maldives for different research purposes has agreed to do the oil exploration research for free, the government has said.

The scientists are expected to begin research within two days.

Speaking to media after his visit to the vessel today, Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Dr Mohamed Shainee said the information obtained will be shared with the Maldives in the first quarter of 2015, adding that it would not be shared with any third party.

A local expert and a member of the Maldives National Defence Force will be present with the team during the survey, he said.

According to Dr Shainee it will be carried out in one of the three main areas in the country with properties indicating the presence of oil and gas – located 100 miles east of the region between Laamu and Thaa atoll.

The three dimensional seismic survey, carried out by sending sonic waves into the sea, will identify the presence of oil and gas in the region without any drilling, the minister said. It will be followed by further exploration involving drilling to confirm any positive findings, he explained.

The survey team’s own research will be about the changes in Maldives’ seas due to global warming, Haveeru has reported.

Speaking to the newspaper, the lead researcher from the University of Hamburg said a similar survey was done by the same vessel in 2007, but this new, more detailed one will complement it.

Oil exploration was an election pledge of President Abdulla Yameen and the government earlier this year said a foreign investor had already expressed interest in oil exploration.

The Maldives National Oil Company Ltd (MNOC), a subsidiary of the State Trading Organization (STO), said in February that they will soon begin advertising the country as a destination for oil exploration.

“We have contacted a Norwegian company and a German company to help us better understand the findings of the study. Based on this report, we’re hopeful of advertising the Maldives as a new destination of oil exploration,” said MNOC Managing Director Ahmed Muneez at the time.

French oil company Elf Aquitaine explored for oil and gas between 1968 and 1978, drilling three different sites. According to the MNOC, it was found at the time that the quantity available from the drilled site was insignificant and therefore uneconomical for production.

In 1991, Royal Dutch Shell initiated a second attempt at drilling an exploration well in the inner sea of the Ari Atoll.

Local environmental NGO Blue Peace has said oil drilling in the Maldives could cause environmental issues depending on the location of drilling , arguing that it “cannot coexist” with the country’s dominant tourism industry.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Government reneges on cash handouts for pensions, offers insurance scheme instead

The government will provide the previously pledged old-age pension of MVR5000 per month (US$325) through an insurance scheme rather than in cash handouts, Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad has told the People’s Majlis Budget Committee.

However, individuals over 65 will continue to receive the current monthly pension of MVR2300 ($149) next year, a Finance Ministry official told Minivan News.

In addition to raising the pension from MVR2300 to MVR5000, President Abdulla Yameen had made last minute promises including “unlimited” health care under the state’s health insurance scheme Aasandha, designating a general practitioner to each family, creating 94,000 new jobs, providing MVR10,000 (US$650) for fishermen regardless of fish yield, and MVR8000 (US$518) for farmers.

Speaking at a Budget Committee meeting, Jihad said: “I do not think the current budget includes elderly benefits. The president has decided to do that through an insurance mechanism.”

In November, Fisheries Minister Dr Mohamed Shainee said the government will not be handing out cash to fishermen, but would introduce an insurance scheme whereby fishermen will be asked to pay a monthly premium of MVR500 (US$ 32) during the fishing season to gain MVR10,000 (US$ 650) during the off-season.

“There is a lot of support for the policy from fishermen. This will incentivise the fishermen. They catch more than MVR10,000 on good fishing days. But if the weather is bad or if the catch is low, there is a degree of despair. We are providing an incentive to overcome this despair to get ready for the next fishing season,” Shainee told local media.

The government will need to start a roster of fishermen, and divert funds from the MVR100 million (US$6.5 million) fuel subsidy to set up the insurance scheme, he added.

The insurance scheme offers come amidst a looming financial crisis. The World Bank has warned the country’s economy is at risk due excessive state expenditure. Further, the government is pursuing untenable financing measures that pose “macro-risks” including possible devaluation of the rufiyaa, the World Bank said.

At present, public debt stands at an “unsustainable” 81 percent of GDP, but is projected to reach 96 percent by 2015, the World Bank said.

Despite promising to curb state expenditure on assuming office, Yameen has only made modest cuts such as halving the presidential salary and reducing the salaries of state and deputy ministers.

Further, the government on Tuesday proposed a record MVR 17.5 billion (US$ 1.1 billion) budget with a projected deficit of 2.2 percent. Over 70 percent of the budget accounts for recurrent expenditure.

Of the MVR 17.5 billion, only MVR 500 million (US$ 32 million) will be spent on new development projects while MVR 400 million (US$ 26 million) will be spent on fulfilling Yameen’s presidential pledges, Jihad told the budget committee.

The government plans to plug the deficit by borrowing from commercial banks. The government has proposed obtaining a US$25 million from the State Bank of India to finance the projected deficit of MVR886,622,881 (US$ 57,201,476).

The parliament’s Finance Committee last week recommended the Majlis approve a US$29.4 million loan from the Bank of Ceylon for budget support for the current year.

The loan which carries a grace period of one year is to be paid back in monthly installments of US$ 490,000 at an interest rate of 8 percent.

Quoting the saying “beggars cannot be choosers,” Jihad said the Maldives has no choice but to borrow from commercial banks at high interest rates.

“We could go to Bank of New York, but they will not lend to us. The best bet now is Bank of Ceylon,” he said.

“The risk factor is high in the Maldives so some parties are increasing the interest rates. So if we have political stability in the Maldives, it is possible [the interest rate] may decrease. It will not happen all of a sudden but it will get better when that risk decreases in the future,” he added.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Politicians trivialising severity of economic problems, foreign investment: Chamber of Commerce

The Maldives National Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MNCCI) has accused senior politicians of trivialising the severity of the country’s economic problems, claiming parties are addressing financial concerns with negative slogans rather than actual policies.

The concerns were raised as the government-aligned Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) claimed over the past week that foreign investors were now turning away from the Maldives due to concerns about political stability and safety in the country.

“Bad shape”

While accepting the present “bad shape” of the Maldives economy, the chamber of commerce criticised negative campaigning on the economy by senior figures in the last two governments – arguing they had done little to address an ongoing shortage of US dollars and a lack of investment banking opportunities and arbitration legislation in the country.

On Saturday (June 29), PPM presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen was quoted in local media as expressing concern that foreign businesses were shunning the Maldives in favour of financing projects in other countries in the region.

“With our present woes no one wants to invest here. They are looking at Seychelles and Caracas. No foreign investor wants to come to the Maldives,” Haveeru reported him as saying.

The concerns were shared by Yameen’s running mate, former Home Minister Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, who told a campaign rally in Raa Atoll days earlier that the PPM was the only party able to secure peace and safety in the country required to boost foreign investor confidence.

Dr Jameel was dismissed as home minister by President Dr Mohamed Waheed in May this year after announcing his decision to stand as running mate for rival candidate Abdulla Yameen in September’s election.

Minivan News was awaiting a response from Dr Jameel about the party’s economic policies at time of press.

While MNCCI Vice President Ishmael Asif accepted that political stability was a key challenge to building foreign investor confidence, he added that senior political figures such as Dr Jameel had failed to implement much needed legislative reforms to aid investment while in power.

Asif argued that Dr Jameel was not the only government figure in the last five years guilty of failing to try and boost investor confidence in the Maldives.

“We are not happy. People are using the economy as a campaign slogan. All parties are looking to come to power and they will do or say anything to be in power,” he said.

Asif expressed particular concern over various parties’ using the country’s present economic difficulties to score points during campaigning without offering their own solutions.

“The economy is not healthy right now. We do not hear any solutions from these people. We want to hear positives about will they change,” Asif said.

“What exactly did Jameel do for the economy? What did Anni [former President Mohamed Nasheed] do? What also did Dr Waheed do? What did any of them do?”

Economic record

Asif argued that ahead of the upcoming presidential election scheduled for September, it was hugely important that voters evaluated all candidates on the basis of their recent economic record.

He said that the Maldives’ first multi-party democratic election in 2008, the country had failed to implement a number of legislative reforms required to provide greater freedom to foreign investors.

According to Asif, key economic reforms lacking included the establishment of investment banks to encourage foreign parties to borrow domestically, and arbitration law to ensure that investments were protected in the country’s courts.

He said that with rival parties and President Waheed all campaigning ahead of this year’s election, there appeared to be little consensus to try and deal with “huge issues” such as the dollar shortage.

Accountability

Asif said he believed that the majority of voters had failed to properly hold their leaders to account since the democratic transition in 2008, comparing the nation’s democratic freedoms over the last five years as being comparable to “a child with a new toy”.

“We have not really understood democracy here. Many have not grown up with the right to question that comes with democracy, so we don’t know how to test the capacity of our leaders,” he said.

Raising concerns that the loudest and most controversial figures had dominated the country’s political arena since 2008, Asif said fears of a lack of accountability were a significant difficulty for the economy.

“Take the Ministry of Trade for example. There is a huge issue over the supply of US dollars, yet instead everyone is focused on their own parties. There is no mandate to address this,” he said.

Opposition concerns

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) meanwhile rejected criticisms over its foreign investment record, claiming it had attempted to introduce a raft of economic reforms for the economy while in power, before the government was controversially changed on February 7, 2012.

The present government, made up entirely of former opposition parties, came to power after former President Mohamed Nasheed resigned from office during a mutiny by sections of the police and military.

MDP MP and Spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said that it was hypocritical for the PPM, or any other party serving in the present government, to raise concerns about political stability, given that they had intentionally deposed the country’s first democratically-elected government.

On an economic level, Ghafoor claimed the former MDP government had sought to introduce an economic reform package aimed at encouraging investment not only in the country’s tourism industry, but in a wider number of sectors such as energy, communications and infrastructure.

He said that this investment focus had been seen in the introduction by the former administration of direct taxation, the restructuring of government finances and the reduction or elimination of import duties on a wide range of goods.

Before Nasheed came to power, Ghafoor said the country had been managed much like a “corner shop” – with no mechanisms to attract and keep investors in the country.

He argued that one legacy of this approach to foreign investment could be still be seen in the country’s courts, which he continued to remain a “mess”.

Judicial criticisms

Before his resignation, former President Nasheed controversially detained the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Abdulla Mohamed, in a move he claimed was needed to prevent him from continuing to rule on cases while charges of misconduct against him were investigated.

In November 2011, the Civil Court ordered the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to take no action against the chief judge over an investigation into his alleged misconduct until the country’s court reached a verdict in a case filed against him. The Civil Court case preventing action against Abdulla Mohamed was filed by the chief judge himself.

In the build up to the judge’s arrest, Nasheed continued to raise concerns over allegations of perjury and “increasingly blatant collusion” between senior judicial figures and politicians loyal to the former autocratic President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Since Nasheed’s resignation, NGOs and independent experts including UN Special Rapporteur for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul have expressed concern over politicisation within the country’s court system.

Accusing the PPM – as part of the present coalition government –  of being directly involved in instigating a mutiny within the country’s security forces prior to the change of government last year, MDP MP Ghafoor alleged the party was also culpable for ruining interest in foreign investment.

He accused PPM presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen in particular of using President Waheed as a “pawn” last November to abruptly terminate a US$511 million contract with India-based GMR to develop and manage Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA).

Indian infrastructure giant GMR recently filed a claim for US$1.4 billion in compensation from the Maldives, following the government’s sudden termination of its concession agreement citing  “wrongful termination” and loss of projected profits.

Meanwhile, the PPM accused President Waheed of ignoring the advice of his coalition government by terminating the agreement.

Waheed’s allies hit back by accusing the PPM of making “contradictory statements” regarding the decision to terminate GMR’s concession agreement, claiming the party’s senior leadership tried to terminate the deal without discussion or following due process.

The MNCCI claimed in September last year that legal wrangling between the government and India-based developer GMR over the multi-million dollar airport development contract was not anticipated to harm confidence in the country’s “challenging” investment climate.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Domestic air transport price sees 18 percent hike

The price of domestic air transportation increased by 18 percent between December 2010 and December 2011, statistics from the Department of National Planning (DNP) indicate.

International flights increased by an even greater 20 percent over the past year.

The transportation sector contributed a total of 8 percent to last year’s total inflation, while Capital Male’ saw an 11.27 percent increase in inflation.

According to DNP statistics, major price hikes also occurred in the food, fish, education and health sectors.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

“Tariff rationalisation a positive to economy”: Care Ratings Maldives

The new tariff structure that came into force on January 1, 2012 will have a positive impact on the domestic economy, predicts an economic review report for December released by Care Ratings Maldives this week.

Care Ratings Maldives became the first credit ratings agency recognised by the Capital Markets Development Authority (CMDA) in May 2011 to carry out ratings of debt instruments and facilities.

“The new export-import tariff structure may be viewed as a pragmatic policy, designed to diminish structural fragilities of the Maldivian economy,” the report found.

Amendments to the Export-Import Act proposed by the government as part of its economic reform package was passed by Parliament on November 21 and ratified by the President shortly thereafter. Import duties were subsequently reduced and scrapped entirely for a range of items.

Under the new tariff structure, the report observes, “products such as metals, minerals, chemical products and manufactured goods, which together constitute about 57 percent of total [imports], have by and large been awarded with a reduction in tariffs.”

However it noted that tariffs or import duties for certain items have been significantly hiked, such as tariffs for tobacco from 50 to 150 percent and non-biodegradable plastic bags from 200 to 400 percent.

The report also noted that the contribution of import duties to government revenue has been declining, from 73 percent in 2008 to 46 percent in the first ten months of 2011.

Meanwhile the implementation of new taxes, such as the Goods and Service Tax (GST) and Business Profit Tax (BPT), is expected to account for a higher portion of government income.

“It may be noted that the Maldivian government is making a conscious attempt at augmenting revenues from direct tax sources, rather than indirect taxes,” the report stated.

The report predicts that “the largest beneficiary of this new tariff structure” could be the secondary sector as tariffs have been lowered significantly (between 10 percent and 100 percent reduction) for inputs of the manufacturing and construction industries.

As a result, the report forecast that the contribution of both sectors to the GDP could reach pre-recession levels of five and 11 percent, respectively.

“The reduction in import tariff would impact the construction sector by freeing resources for projects under implementation and reducing their costs during gestation periods,” the report explains, adding that the construct boom “could boost the tertiary sector of the economy as well.”

Retailers meanwhile expect prices of foodstuff to fall in the wake of the import duty waiver. Items with GST rate set at zero percent for which import duties have now been scrapped include rice, flour, sugar, salt, milk, cooking oil, eggs, tea, fish products, onions, potatoes, fruits and vegetables, baby food, diapers, gas, diesel and petrol.

While the State Trading Organisation (STO) announced a reduction in diesel and petrol prices, Maldivian airline reduced airfares for domestic flights by Rf50 in line with the reduction in import duty for jet fuel.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

President appoints executives to CMDA, MQA

Former Financial Controller at the Finance Ministry Ahmed Assad has been appointed to the post of Chairman of the Capital Market Development Authority (CMDA).

Assad was appointed by President Mohamed Nasheed earlier today. He is a brother of Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam.

Assad served as the State Minister for Finance and Treasury before accepting the post of Financial Controller on April 8 this year. He resigned from this position in November for undisclosed reasons.

In a letter accepting Assad’s resignation, President Nasheed thanked him for his support in drafting the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) manifesto, Haveeru reports.

The President also appointed today Dr. Abdul Muhsin Mohamed as the Chief Executive Officer at the Maldives Qualification Authority (MQA). The MQA oversees and issues professional credentials in the Maldives.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

New Rf5 notes enter circulation

Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) today released new Rf5 notes into circulation, as per discussions held over the past several months.

The new notes are said to differ from existing ones, which will be kept in circulation.

According to MMA, the security thread on the original note has been replaced with a new thread, bearing a design in place of the original “MMA AMM”, Haveeru reports.

The new notes are dated March 7, 2011, and bear the signature of MMA Governor Fazeel Najeeb.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Maldivians ready to open up the economy, says president

Maldivians are starting to see the benefits of opening up the economy for private investments, said President Mohamed Nasheed, speaking at the Regional Export Awards presentation ceremony of Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India, held at Kurumba Maldives yesterday evening.

President Nasheed said until recently the Maldivian economy has been very centralised and heavily regulated, and this had “prevented growth, repelled investment and thwarted people’s aspirations.”

The president mentioned the reforms in the Indian economy, which he said were strengthening the country’s economy and lifting millions out of poverty.

Highlighting the importance of foreign investment, he mentioned the benefits of the agreement with Apollo Hospitals of India, which are investing US$125 million to reform Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

He said the government has successfully attracted foreign investors to invest in housing, electricity and energy programmes, and how private investors are at the forefront of the new transport system that will connect all inhabited islands with ferry services.

The Maldives Partnership Forum IV, a conference giving international investors the chance to visit the country and invest in its development, will be held in March.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)