India and Maldives on Sunday signed 5 MoUs for establishing the Addu Tourism zone in five islands of Addu atoll at a cost of 2.49 million USD.
The tourism zone is expected to generate local employment and enhance eco-tourism opportunities in Addu.
The MOUs were signed between the High Commissioner of India Sunjay Sudhir, Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid and Addu City Council.
A 6th MoU to set up a bottled water plant in Hoarafushi was also signed today. All six projects are grant projects falling under India’s High Impact Community Development Scheme (HICDP).
An MoU on HICDPs was signed during the visit of Former External Affairs Minister late Sushma Swaraj to Male in March 2019, and, a total grant of USD 5.6 million was announced for these projects.
HICDPs constitute an important dimension of the dynamic development partnership between India and the Maldives. These projects are driven by the needs of communities on the islands. India has said it is happy to share its development experience with friendly countries like Maldives as a part of its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy reciprocated by Maldives’ ‘India First’ policy.
India hopes that the swift completion of these projects will make a difference to communities on the islands, and open a new chapter of partnership between India and Maldives.
Discussion about this post