Tourism Minister Ali Waheed has said 70 project works of resorts’ leased to different parties for development have been stopped. Minister said that some of these resorts have been leased for development since 2006 and the projects still remain incomplete.
According to Minister Ali Waheed, the government will work on taking the legal action against the matter in the coming months and the government would not allow the islands of Maldivian’s to be leased for development with no progress. Minister added that instead of leasing new islands for development it is more important to work on developing the islands that the works have been stopped.
In 2016, the tourism act was amended to allow closed bidding for islands for resort development. However, with the new government which came into power in November 2018, had pledged to scrap the amendment and issue tourism leases only through open bidding.
The government earlier this year said a total of 132 tourism projects involving 140 islands are being carried out across the Maldives.