President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi have jointly launched four developmental projects in the Maldives.
The projects were launched with the exchange of agreements between the two countries at a special video conference held last evening.
Gifting in-shore patrol vessel CGS Kaamiyaab
The certificate of CGS Kaamiyaab was presented to Uza Mariya Ahmed Didi, the Maldives’ Minister of Defense, by Sunjay Sudhir, the Ambassador of India to the Maldives.
The 28-metre vessel, equipped with state-of-the-art technology, is designed for coastal patrolling, surveillance, high-speed interception and search-and-rescue operations. Five executives and three technical officers of MNDF were trained prior to the induction of the vessel.
Establishing Neighbourhood Fish Processing Plants in Addu City
The Addu Neighbourhood Fish Processing Plant project was launched under the exchange of the Memorandum of Understanding regarding Indian Grant Assistance for Implementation of High Impact Community Development Projects. The MoU was exchanged between Ambassador Sudhir and Abdulla Shahid, the Maldives’ Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The agreement was signed in March 2019 between the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the Maldives Foreign Ministry and Addu City Council during the official visit to the Maldives by External Affairs Minister of India, the late Sushma Swaraj. The MoU facilitates the implementation of projects which would contribute significantly to economic and social development and improvement of public welfare, particularly in the areas of education, health and community development sectors.
This agreement would see the development of ‘Geydhoshu Mas Plants’ or Neighbourhood Fish Processing Plants in three islands of Addu City—Hithadhoo, Hulhudhoo-Meedhoo, and Maradhoo. The Addu City Council is the implementing agency of the projects.
Use of RuPay Card in the Maldives
The agreement regarding the acceptance of the RuPay Card in the Maldives was exchanged between Timothy Sawyer, the Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Maldives (BML), and Hari Shankar Yadav, the Lead of International Alliances of the National Payments Cooperation of India.
The agreement seeks to strengthen bilateral tourism and people-to-people ties, targeting to increase the number of Indian tourists visiting the Maldives while making it easier for the visitors to make payments. With the agreement, RuPay Cards would be accepted throughout merchant locations and ATMs across the country.
Gifting LED street lamps to Malé City
The LED street lamps are gifted as part of the collaboration between the two countries in the field of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The project has seen the replacement of over 2500 conventional street lamps with LED lamps in Malé.
It would save 0.2 million units of energy annually, translating to a total energy cost-saving of over MVR 0.8 million per annum and a reduction of 145 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The streetlamps were gifted under an agreement signed between Malé City Council and the Energy Efficiency Service Limited (EESL) — an undertaking of the Ministry of Power of India.
President Solih and Prime Minister Modi delivered remarks at the video conference simulcast live in Maldives and India. This is the first time for the Maldives to exchange bilateral agreements with another country via video conferencing.
