Author: Mohamed Reehaan

Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih shared his vision to attract three million annual tourists in the next five-year period. While President Solih announced his vision amid his presidential campaign as the Maldives is getting ready for its presidential election in September, the incumbent president said the target is to increase annual tourist arrivals beyond five million next. President Solih emphasized on the government’s efforts to boost tourism activity in the Maldives during a recent campaign trip. He said the Maldives is now aiming to increase its economy, and claimed a key strategy for his is to enhance and upgrade the…

The Crew-7 Dragon spacecraft launched by SpaceX on Sunday, August 27, successfully docked with the International Space Station as its crew of four astronauts began their six-month mission. The four Crew-7 astronauts of the US, Europe, Japan and Russia aboard SpaceX’s Dragon docked ISS where it parked itself at a space-facing port on the outpost’s US built Harmony module after flying a wide loop around the orbital outpost. “Thank you so much,” the Crew-7 Commander Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA radioed to SpaceX mission control after the successful docking. “I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a dream.”…

The seventh edition of the TTM Maldives 2023 has successfully concluded. The event commenced at Meerumaa Conference Facility on August 22. The event began with TTM Connect meetings, that went on from August 22 to 23 at the Meerumaa Events Conference Facility. The meetings attracted over a 1,000 travel trade professionals and over 100 hoteliers. More than 3,000 pre-scheduled meetings were successfully conducted. TTM Maldives concluded with the TTM Awards & Gala. This year’s awards recognized the achievements and contributions of travel and tourism industry professionals and businesses in 22 different categories. Two new categories; Editor’s Choice All Inclusive Resorts…

The cumulative total of state expenditures reached MVR 27.7 billion as of August 17, 2023, reports the Ministry of Finance. According to the ministry’s statistics the cumulative state revenues reached MVR 21.3 billion as of the review date. The overall balance for the period is a deficit of MVR 6.3 billion. Tax revenues have reached a year-to-date total of MVR 16.4 billion while non-tax revenues reached MVR 4.7 billion. For the same period in 2022, tax revenues reached MVR 13.2 billion while non-tax revenues stood at MVR 4.8 billion. Government projects a total of MVR 2.5 billion in grants for…

Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) launches the instant payment system ‘Favara’ on August 26, Saturday. The new instant payment system was launched by Vice President Faisal Naseem at a ceremony held at Crossroads Maldives. The system was developed under the Maldives Payment System Development project, and aims to “facilitate fast, convenient and secure payment services in the Maldives.” MMA, the Maldives central bank, said that the with the launch of Favara, three banks in the country are currently onboarded as participants which include Bank of Maldives (BML), Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB), and State Bank of India (SBI). Favara services will be…

Onion supply from India has shown a significant decline over the past weeks, which had impacted the price of the item in the Maldivian market. A few days back, 25kg sack of onions had a going rate of MVR 225, but the price had since surged to MVR 350; indicating an increment of MVR 5 per kilogram. Vendors and retail traders alike echoed that the drastic price hike was due to the shortage of supply of onions in India. To address this shortage, Indian government has already implemented substantial increase in onion export duties, raising them by 40%. Maldives Minister…

Local authorities have issued a no-fly order on former Maldives Parliament member Alhan Fahmy for an ongoing investigation conducted by the Maldives Police Service. Though no details were shared by local authorities, it was earlier confirmed that authorities had launched a criminal investigation against the shareholders of Kings Capital, of which Fahmy is a major shareholder. Fahmy and the rest of the shareholders are under suspicion for allegedly operating a pyramid scheme on the pretext of Forex trading. Earlier, Civil Court ordered Kings Capital to pay MVR 90,000 in compensation to one of the company’s investors. Reports claim that the…

Tata SIA Airlines Limited operating as Vistara, the Indian full-service airline is readying to launch direct flights between Male’ and India’s capital New Delhi. Vistara in a press statement confirmed its preparations apace to launch scheduled flights between Male’ and New Delhi beginning from October. The airline first began its flight operations to the Maldives on March 3, 2021 and continued to operate scheduled flights between Male’ and Mumbai. Vistara said it was expanding its Indian destinations in light of growing demand for the Maldives among Indian travelers. Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan expressed his delight and while speaking about the…

Draws to award the remaining 145 Hiyaa housing flats commenced last Monday, August 21 at Urbanco. The units were not eligible for allocation under the civil servant category for applicants who scored below 50 points along with other contributing factors. Urbanco reported the units will be allocated based on the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure-issued reserve list. Draws for all 145-units were taken at Urbanco. Former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen’s administration decided to withhold flat allocations for applicants under the civil service category who scored below 50 points, but the current Ibrahim Mohamed Solih-led government took the decision…

Maldives government on Thursday, August 24, announced its decision to grant license to SpaceX’s Starlink high-speed internet services in the island nation. The Tesla, SpaceX and now Twitter honcho Elon Musk founded Starlink in a bid to provide high-speed internet across the globe at affordable rates. Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology has already extended invitations to local media on Thursday morning for the special ceremony scheduled for Thursday afternoon to grant the ISP license to Starlink; the details expected soon. While the Maldives earlier was set to gain access to SpaceX’s Starlink in February 2021, the plan hit…