Maldives Construction Fair at Male:

Lankan companies clinch deals with Maldivians

Jayampathy JAYASINGHE in Male
 

Visitors at the stall

Several Sri Lankan companies clinched business deals with Maldivian counterparts at the Maldives Construction Fair held at Male recently. The three-day event was opened by the Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed at the Dharubaaruge Exhibition Hall in Male.

The Vice President of the Sri Lanka-Maldives Bilateral Business Council Samantha Ranatunga said Sri Lankan construction companies have a tremendous potential in Maldives when global recession ends. He said the Sri Lanka Maldives Bilateral Business Council is an arm of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

President, Maldives Association of Construction Industry, Mohammad Ali Janah in an exclusive interview with "the Sunday Observer" said an investment of US $ 2.5 billion was required to develop 64 new tourist resort projects earmarked by the government. However due to the prevailing credit crunch in the global market, global banks and monetary agencies were not lending money for the construction sector. But the construction boom will take place when the recession ends. Private commercial and international investment in the tourist sector was one billion US dollars last year. The public infrastructure projects alone were worth over US $ 300 million, he said.

Ali Janah further said the government has plans to divide Maldives into seven provinces that will have infrastructure projects such as hospitals, schools, harbours and mosques etc. The Maldivian Housing Development Finance Corporation restructured recently has aligned itself with other international financial institutions to provide private housing loans to people.

A section of the visitors

The government plans to provide 10,000 housing units to the people in the near future. " It is a half a billion dollar project and we have received several bids." in this connection.

He said construction was the third biggest industry in Maldives. But a big drop was recorded in 2009 owing to the prevailing global recession. Prior to that a major growth of 38 percent was recorded. "The construction industry will soon overtake the fisheries industry in future if things go well.

Last year we contributed about 8 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)." The Maldives were dependant on construction materials from other countries as they do not manufacture. "Development was taking place in Maldives and we brought to together buyers and sellers.

"We have brought everything to the fair such as technology and energy products. We have brought to our doorstep construction products for those who could not travel overseas." he said.