Male’, Maldives – President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has met with the World Bank’s Country Director to the Maldives, Mr Faris Hadad-Zervos, and Country Manager, Ms Chiyo Kanda, this morning at the President’s Office.
Other attendees of the meeting included Chief of Staff Uz. Ali Zahir, Minister of Finance Mr Ibrahim Ameer, Minister of State for Finance, Mr Ismail Ali Manik, Secretary, Foreign Relations, Ms. Sabra Noordeen, Chief Resource Mobilization & Debt Management Executive at the Finance Ministry, Ms. Mariyam Abdul Nasir, and Ms Shadiya Adam, a World Bank country staff assigned to the Maldives were also present at the meeting.
The World Bank was among the first to provide the Maldives with Covid-19 relief assistance, and have been helping the country implement projects to strengthen the readiness of the health sector, improve infrastructural resilience and the capacity to respond to natural disasters
President Solih thanked the World Bank for the continual financial assistance they provide to the Maldives , and urged their continued assistance as it is more vital now than ever in light of the recent economic downturn caused by the pandemic..
The World Bank has assisted the Maldives with numerous projects in , which over the past 42 years, across 32 projects, is cumulatively worth over USD 295 million. Ongoing projects include public finance, renewable energy, capacity-building, improving the education sector, enhancing the fisheries sector and investing in human capital.
After the President Solih’s remarks, the World Bank’s delegation reiterated its readiness to support Maldives’ efforts to achieve macro-fiscal objectives, enhance economic resilience, and to recover from the pandemic. The delegation congratulated the incumbent administration’s track record over the past two years, and wished ongoing success with regard to women’s empowerment and decentralization.
Country Director Hadad-Zervos stated that the timing of the visit, amid a global crisis, demonstrated the World Bank’ commitment to supporting the Maldives and that he was looking forward to work together with the administration to improve access to concessional financing.
Securing concessional financing is said to be a key factor for the Maldives to repair it’s economy and avoid a total recession, with Maldivian financial officials and global organizations reiterating this fact.
