Shainee: No proposals yet for iHaven

Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr. Mohamed Shainee has commented that the government has not yet received a formal request to invest in the iHaven project which will be run on the northernmost atoll in Maldives, Ihavandhippolhu Atoll.

iHaven is an integrated project which will capitalize on the geographic location of Ihavandhippolhu Atoll – which lays on the shipping route used to travel from north to west in Indian Ocean.

Components of the iHaven project include a transshipment port, airport development, warehousing and export processing, cruise harbor, yacht marina, dockyard, bunkering facilities and tourism.

Speaking in an interview to Indian newspaper “The Wire” in the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, India, Dr. Shainee said that despite the government having offered the iHaven project to India, it has not yet received a proposal from India or any other country.

“We have not had any proposals, but I believe some Indian partners are looking into it,” said Dr. Shainee in the interview with “The Wire”.

He said that iHaven was open for investment from India or Saudi Arabia. And that he didn’t think it possible any one company or country can invest on the whole project.

Dr. Shainee said the Maldivian government has done a feasibility study on iHaven, and were now drawing plans to run the project.

“We are drawing the plan to roll it out, but we have not got any funding yet or any proposals signed. There have been interests from many countries who are looking into the proposal,” he said.

Singaporean company, Surbana Jurong Consultancy was contracted to draw up designs for the project in November, 2016.