A PPM government will be willing talk to GMR: former president Maumoon

President of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has said that his party is open to do business with the Indian infrastructure giant GMR, if they come back to power.

In an interview to the Indian news agency Press Trust of India (PTI), the former president is reported to have said that a PPM government will be willing talk to anybody who wants to invest in Maldives, whether it is TATA or GMR.

When asked if he was willing to look at GMR if it comes with a fresh proposal, if his party win the presidential in September, Maumoon told PTI that, "everything is possible".

"And if you can come to arrangement which is good for both sides and is not harmful to any one side, we will of course welcome that," Gayoom is reported to have said.

During his recent visit to Indian, Indian newspaper The Hindu reported Maumoon to have said that he was not happy with the way the government handled the cancellation the of the GMR-led consortium’s contract.

“This was a mistake. Had he consulted all political parties, the public would not have formed the impression that corruption had taken place. Then we told the next President Mr. Waheed that he should hold discussions with the GMR Group and the Indian government to arrive at an acceptable solution, after which the government was free to act on its own. Unfortunately, this was not done and suddenly there was this unhappy ending,” Maumoon said.

Although Maumoon indicated that a PPM government would be willing to take back GMR, the former president and his party had commended and congratulated current government upon their termination of the contract with the Indian infrastructure giant.

Speaking in the parliament on the 23rd of October, PPM’s parliamentary group leader and the party’s current presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen had said that GMR would not have had the chance to set up business in the Maldives if PPM was in power.