Ihavandhippolhu to be leased for 50 years

1 January 2008
Report: Ayya

It had been decided to lease Ihavandhippolhu to a foreign company for 50 years to make a Trans shipment port, Finance Minister Gasim Ibrahim has said. 20% of the estimated income from the 2008 budget is set to come from Ihavandhippolhu.

Speaking to the Press yesterday afternoon, Gasim Ibrahim said that although government has decided this, it could only happen with the consonant from the People’s Majlis. He said a new law will be drafted regarding this and will be proposed to the People’s Majlis by the government at the beginning of this year. He said that more foreign investments need to be brought here through right constitutional framework so that the economy will develop and people could be provided quality services. He said that it is good that the new constitution enables such projects to be leased for maximum 99 years to foreign firms.

“In the annual meeting of World Bank, I discussed with them about Ihavandhippolu project. Now they have come here and have started work. A lot of surveys had been done” Gasim said.

Since some MPs are saying that the 2008 budget contains estimated income from some projects which had not even started such as the Gulhee lagoon etc. But Gasim Ibrahim said that he was sure of that Ihavandhippolhu project will be a success and now it has bee set that Maldives get 126 million rufiyaa which was to be an income in 2007 budget. He said that work has been delayed as there had been some difficulties as work need to be done with foreign companies. He said that as it’s the government system that each institution do a separate work, some obstacles are faced in these projects but agreement will be done with a foreign company and work of Gulhee lagoon would begin within the 1st 2 to 3 months of this year.

“Domestic budget for year 2006 was Rf 5.6 billion, Rf 6.6 billion for 2007 and estimated Rf 9.1 billion for 2008. After revising the previous budgets, it shows that Rf 7.3 billion was spent on year 2006, Rf 9.4 Billions for 2007 and Rf 12 Billion for 2008” Finance Minister said.