[vc_row][vc_column][layerslider_vc id=”1″][laborator_heading title=”INVEST IN MALDIVES ” text_align=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
WHY INVEST MALDIVES
Maldives boasts multiple advantages and unparalleled potential — a place where businesses can achieve excellence on a global scale. Whether you are considering business expansion or new South East Asian investment opportunities, Maldives should be top of mind as your investment destination of choice
TOURISM SECTOR
The Maldives has won the Condé Nast Traveller’s Readers Best Island Award for the year 2008. Maldives scored well in all 10 scoring criteria including the top mark for beaches.
The Maldives won this milestone award from the readers’ poll by successfully competing against Greek Islands, Mauritius, Barbados and Hawaii etc. This is the third consecutive year that Maldives won this award.
In addition, six Maldives resorts were among the best hotels in Overseas Leisure Hotels in the Middle East, Africa and the Indian Ocean category.
With total employment of around 14,000 and contribution of 33% to the GDP, the tourism sector is the key engine of growth in the Maldivian economy.
Having adopted a strategy of tourism development centered on the high end of the market, according to statistics, there is an excess demand for beds and hence an immense scope in development of some 30 resort hotels scattered around the Maldives.
Occupancy rates have shown an increasing trend during the last decade and average 62% a year.
The Maldives has a unique marine environment created by the 20 coral atolls sitting on top of a submarine mountain ridge. The government devised policies to protect this important resource and has thereby created the foundation for a unique setting for tourism development. Resorts are leased to the operators and revenue contribution of the sector to the government is composed of the lease fees for a 25 to 35 year lease period. In addition the government collects a bed tax of USD 8 per night.
Catering to the upper end of the market, the cost of the development of the resort hotels, the One Island One Resort concept in the Maldives is high and so are the returns to developers and other partners, etc.
Investment Opportunities in Tourism sector include:
Resort DevelopmentPrivate VillasCity HotelsNewly opened up Guest Houses and Boutique Hotels in the outer atolls and islands.
AGRIBUSINESS
Fishery sector
The Maldives is the only country in the world that can exclusively and rightfully claim to be a fully sustainable 100% pole and line ?eco-friendly? skipjack tuna fishing resource.
For generations the Maldives have employed this traditional way of fishing in the crystal clear waters along its tropical archipelago , which not only preser ves a healthy, safe and sustainable habitat for dolphins, whales, turtles and other marine species and birds, but equally recognises the demands of their burgeoning tourist industry and ensures a peaceful coexistence of the two.
The Maldives, unlike other tuna fishing countries, have always resisted the commercially driven temptation of unsustainable technological enhanced fishing practices, in deference of harvesting their natural resource by the age-old tradition of pole and line fishing, which has been handed down from father to son with a heritage dating back to the 14th century.
http://www.glenryck.co.uk/pages/news.htm
The Maldivian government places high priority to investments in the area of value addition, research and development in the fisheries industry.
With an approximate employment in the fisheries sector counting all up and down stream linkages of 35,000, the contribution made to the Maldivian economy is paramount.
The geography of Maldives makes characteristics make marine resources the most important natural endowment.
Approximately 94% of all catch in the Maldives is accounted for by local fishermen using pole and line to catch mostly skipjack tuna. Exports of fish products make up 99.5% of all exports in value terms, tuna products constitute 86%. In addition, the catch effort for local fishermen (near coast fisheries) is almost exclusively skipjack tuna.
High sea EEZ fisheries are licensed to 43 international fishing companies mostly applying long line technology. Regulation is done by catch quotas and allows only long lining and pole and line methods. Application of these sustainable methods makes Maldives fisheries extremely ecological.
The Maldives guarantees environmentally friendly fisheries mechanism and there is huge potential for eco-fisheries, diversification into other marine catch or aquaculture products will be investigated based on a demand driven (market demand) approach.
Agriculture
Agriculture is still traditional in nature and is practiced mostly as means of subsistence. It is mainly practiced as a family activity with minimal use of hired labor. Semi commercial and commercial farms employ expatriate labor. Women play a major role in farming activities. It is believed that domestic agricultural production covers only about 10 percent of the country’s food requirement and the rest, including staple food items, are imported.
Since Maldives is a net importing country, there is high scope for investment in the research and technological development for agriculture. The Commercialization of agriculture has enabled the potential for increasing efficiency and productivity in agri-business is considerably high. The two fundamental markets for horticultural products which could be exploited above that is being done by the locals. The first market is the over 100 resort tourist islands averaging 700,000 in number of annual arrivals. Another key sector is the number of local supermarkets Male’ and the other populated Atolls in the north and south.
Through new product development and appropriate application of technology can lead to numerous potential for investment returns. With foreign investment in the sector, subsequent improvements in the area could boost the Agricultural production as a whole in the country.
CONSTRUCTION SECTOR
For six consecutive years the Maldivian construction industry is exhibiting double digit growth, and expanding. The fundamental reason behind this is the upsurge in large scale tourism resort development projects; development of infrastructure projects, tsunami rebuilding, and the never ending increase in demand for residential and commercial property development in the capital Male’. According to the Maldives Monetary Authority:
1. Construction related imports rose by 13 percent on annual terms, from US$172.3 million in 2007 to US$194.9 million in 2008
2. Commercial bank credit granted to the industry grew substantially by 54 percent (or Rf583.1 million), totaling Rf1,671.0 million at the end of 2008.
SOCIAL SECTOR
The Maldives’ strong performance of the economy has been matched by improvements in the well being and welfare of the nation’s population. In the education sector, Maldives has formed a unified system of education, though much is yet to be acknowledged.
Given the nations new approaches especially towards a more demand-driven curriculum with more and more involvement of the private sector, the objective is to move towards the expansion of educational services and for regional development and facilitate privatization of these services.
To pilot the privatization project, government attempts to open the seven provinces for potential investors and education management organisations to establish private high quality education institutions, creating a range of investing opportunities. Furthermore, the necessity to introduce technical and vocational education streams would open new doors to the children and youth to equip them with skills and training needed in today’s world, paves more prospects for further investment.
While the Maldives has achieved remarkable successes in the number of medical personnel, its life expectancy rate had increased from 40 years of age in 1960 to 68.5 years by 2007, along with a human development index of 0.771 in 2009. However, still the health system has seldom failed to meet the quality standards given the emerging healthcare outlets.
Under the de-centralisation policy, the Government has commenced the Privatization of Health system for those parties abroad to invest here in Maldives. Aimed at raising revenue, developing infrastructure and improve public health care, this new administrative tool is expected to attract leading health care institutes throughout the region.
ENERGY SECTOR
Raw energy supply to the Maldives is a major import item with a share of 13% of the total import bill of USD 475 million. Petroleum products are imported mostly to be transformed into electricity supply. All inhabited and resort islands plus a number of the uninhabited island used for agricultural and industrial purposes have one or more electricity generating units. The distribution of raw energy is a costly activity. To this extent, the cost of energy is a supply-side constraint to the competitiveness of the economy.
Production and distribution is the responsibility of the State Electricity Company (STELCO). In many cases, ownership and responsibility for the production and distribution of electricity in the islands have been turned over to the communities. The same is the case for the resort islands.
The Government is in the process of compiling energy balances for the years 2001-2004. Small scale experiments have been carried using permanent energy sources as wind and sun, but on-going research indicates that the wind regimes prevalent for the archipelago are not favorable. Sun energy is seen to mostly useful for heating of water and hence immense scope for benefitting from investments made towards the government envisaged Carbon Neutral Maldives.
KNOWLEDGE SERVICES
The peculiarities of geography with widely dispersed and often thinly populated islands have enhanced the implementation of wireless telecommunication infrastructure. It is now extended to cover virtually all 200 inhabited islands through a combination of microwave and satellite technology with the capital Male’, the satellite cities, Hulhumale’, and Vilingili islands are equipped with cabled communication technology.
For this reason mobile communication has exploded. The overall service capacity and quality is expected to be vastly improved with the arrival of the international broadband cable from India, expected for 2006.
Knowledge services, which encompass Information Communication Technology (ICT), IT, and financial off shore services, are a relatively new phenomenon for the Maldives.
There are only limited numbers of academically trained professionals available hence client training and education service providers, scope of consultancy is extremely high.
If you are interested invest in maldives please contact me below contact deatils. .
Banmode Pvt Ltd
Ma.lily , Dhilbahaarumagu
Male’ rep of Maldives
[email protected]
00960 7779634
Skype: banmode_pvt_ltd[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]