Former govt’s attempts to seek investors gave nothing but gooseflesh- Abbas

Press Secretary Abbas Adil Riza has said that the attempts of the former President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration to seek investors gave nothing but gooseflesh to those who were investing and were looking forward to invest in the Maldives.

Speaking to Miadhu Daily, Abbas said that most of the investments in the country are mainly focused in the tourism industry. He said that however, when the former government started leasing the public assets of the state, it gave a sudden shock to all the people.

Abbas said that the tourism industry of Maldives is developed under the direct consultations with the United Nations agency dealing with questions relating to tourism, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the World Bank and other such organisations. He said that when the government got the opportunity to implement the third tourism master plan the whole master plan was rejected through deceit and dishonesty.

“Uninhabited islands and other such places were granted to party activists to gain their trust. In this regard some of these people who were granted islands are ignorant of the location of the island they were granted,” he said.

“Many foreign potential investors were scared away as a consequence of the P.P.Program of Nasheed. The reason was that Maldives was going up on the corruption index with every passing day,” he said.

Abbas said that the sudden decision to take taxes and also because of the discrimination in the communications of the government with different investors Maldives lost many potential investments that could have benefited the country.