Nasheed: Islands currently offer more business opportunities than Male’

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s chairperson, former president Mohamed Nasheed, on Friday, remarked that meaningful development cannot be achieved by focusing solely on Malé, emphasizing that some of the country’s most significant business opportunities are found across the islands.

Speaking at the inauguration of the ‘Rashveshi Tharaqqee’ Investment Forum, held as part of the MDP’s fifth congress, Nasheed highlighted the range of productive activities currently being carried out across the islands and stressed the need to expand and develop these initiatives.

He said that during his travels across the country this year, he had observed such activities on every island he visited.

"A vast amount of work is happening in the islands; they are producing spice blends, packaged foods, and baked goods. Small-scale home-based industries are thriving in numerous islands. From my observations this year, across the 118 islands I have visited, there was not a single island where some form of such productive activity was not taking place," Nasheed remarked.

He said the MDP aims to support local councils in developing frameworks that would enable these activities to evolve into profitable and sustainable commercial ventures.

"The goal of this Investment Forum and the MDP’s Project Department is to facilitate local councils in transforming local income-generating activities into formal businesses that can operate and generate profit based on commercial principles," he explained.

Nasheed further emphasized that the development envisioned for the Maldives cannot be achieved solely from the capital, Malé, noting that the islands currently offer a higher level of business opportunities that is unprecedented compared to other parts of the country.