A bilateral agreement has been reached for Maldivian fishermen to instruct the Seychellois in environment-friendly pole-and-line fishing methods, President Mohamed Nasheed told press yesterday upon his return from an official visit to Seychelles this month.
President Nasheed explained that the Seychellois fisheries industry was based on long-line fishing by licensed foreign parties, with an annual catch of 250,000 tonnes compared to 140,000 tonnes per annum in the Maldives.
Long-line fishing and bottom trawling in the Indian Ocean has adversely affected fishing in the Maldives, which has been declining steadily for the past eight years.
“Our thinking was to carry out discussions with the Seychelles government for the Maldives to help introduce pole-and-line fishing to the Seychellois people,” he said.
While about 25,000 Maldivians were employed in fishing with 5,000 privately-owned fishing boats, Nasheed continued, the Seychellois were not involved in the local fishing industry in the country.
“We believe that if this is done, the Seychelles government could easily stop issuing [fishing] licenses without any loss,” he said. “The Seychelles government has agreed for Maldivian fishermen to go to Seychelles, fish there and teach pole-and-line fishing skills to the Seychelles people.”
Discussions also took place over the possibility of establishing a trans-national shipping line comprising the Indian Ocean island states of Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius, Comoros Islands and La Reunion, President Nasheed revealed.
A team with officials from the five nations is to be formed with a view to forming a joint shipping line with a board representing all the countries, Nasheed said.
“The third point we discussed with the Seychelles government was to import goods jointly,” he said, adding that a mechanism for joint imports would significantly lower the prices of oil, foodstuff and pharmaceuticals.
Nasheed also noted the remarkable economic recovery of the Seychelles following the turnaround of its economic policies – which was faced with similar macro-economic challenges as the Maldives – including foreign exchange, market liberalisation and floating of the rupee.
President Nasheed said that the Maldives can learn from the Seychelles’ successful economic reform activities and recovery following its debt crisis in 2008.
Speaker Abdulla Shahid – who participated in the visit along with senior MPs of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party – meanwhile discussed the possibility of forming an inter-parliamentary organisation for Indian Ocean island states.
President Nasheed however added that the “main purpose” of the official visit was to attend the opening of the Indian Ocean Island Games of 2011 and provide support and encouragement to the Maldivian sports teams, which was one of the largest delegations from the country for an international sporting event.
The competitions at the games include football, basketball, volleyball, swimming, laser sailing, badminton, weight lifting, boxing, table tennis, cycling, and judo.
Maldives is participating in the basketball, volleyball and badminton events. The national football team drew its first two matches against Mauritius and Comoros and are due to face host nation Seychelles tonight at 7:00pm local time.
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