Dunya: Cost of bringing changes listed in new Constitution is incredibly high

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dunya Maumoon has said that the economic cost of bringing the changes listed in the 2008 Constitution, has been incredibly high.

Dunya made this remark in her speech at the Maldives’ review of the UPR at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

She said that Maldives’ achievements within a span of just ten years have been remarkable, but this fast pace of change brought with it new challenges - that the government and the society were not entirely accustomed to deal with.

“Among the most daunting challenges is the incredibly high economic cost of bringing the systemic changes envisioned in the 2008 Constitution. Although categorised as a middle income country by the UN the total government revenue is less than $1.5 billion a year. That figure is dwarfed by the astonishing cost of rights envisioned in the Constitution. Providing basic public services explicitly listed in the Constitution such as education, health, safe drinking water, sanitation, communication, electricity, and a healthy and ecologically balanced environment to a population of 340,000 dispersed across a 188 islands that are spread over an area of 90,000 sq km in the Indian Ocean, is incredibly expensive. These services, together with urgent defensive measures against the effects of climate change such as shore protection of the islands, take away more than three quarters of government revenue,” said Dunya.