Maldives this week
09 July 2022, Maldives celebrates Eid-ul-A'lha, with Eid prayers in all inhabited islands, and many cultural activities planned in major local populations. The Eid celebrations are followed by the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which is held every year during the Zul-hijja month of Muslim calendar.
07 July 2022, The independent member of parliament MP Saud Hussein of GA. Villingili constituency has joined the ruling party, MDP. This brings the total of ruling party's members in parliament to 66 out of total 87.
07 July 2022, Ministry of Planning and Housing has signed a contract with a private party to built 100 housing units in Hinnavaru Island in Lhaviyanu Atoll. The total price of the contract is at MVR 83.8 million to be spent through the national budget, for the construction of 50 housing units of 1000 sq ft, and 50 units with 700 sq ft in size.
07 July 2022, The Maldives Civil Aviation Authority has granted license to the Aviation Academy, a joint venture between the Island Aviation company and Maldives National University (MNU). The academy plans to train at least 80 pilots during the first year of its operation.
05 July 2022, The Minister of Finance has officially announced government plans for a 2 percent increase in the GST and a 4 percent increase in the TSGT resulting in GST rates to be increased to 8 percent and TSGT rates to 16 percent. In addition to the announcement regarding the tax increase, the Minister of Finance noted some additional steps being taken to reduce costs while speaking at a conference held at the President's Office.
29 June 2022, According to a statement by Singaporean real estate firm JLL, the Universal Group has completed transactions for the sale of Sheraton Maldives Full Resort and W Maldives.
29 June 2022, Maldives High Court ruling has required the President's Chief of Staff, Ali Zahir to pay MVR 2.3 million to Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB). The High Court ruling supports an earlier ruling by the lower Court, for a cheque issued by Ali Zahir in 2018 for MVR 2.3 million, that was honoured by the bank by providing an overdraft in favour of Zahir.
26 June 2022, Government opens up applications for 3,000 residential land plots, and 4,000 flats in the Male' region. According to the Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam, the land plots will be given from Hulhumale' and Gulhifalhu, and the flats will be given from those which are being constructed in Hulhumale'.
22 June 2022, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, on Wednesday evening, departed on an official visit to the Republic of Rwanda, to attend his first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). First Lady Fazna Ahmed and a high-level delegation are accompanying him on this visit.
21 June 2022, The Maldives’ Cabinet condemned, in the strongest terms, the disruption of the event held at the National Stadium this morning. At the meeting at the President’s Office Tuesday afternoon, the Cabinet also formed a subcommittee to further look into the matter.
21 June 2022, In a major security breach by the Maldives security forces, a yoga event to celebrate the world yoga day was interrupted by an angry mob of protestors. The event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Youth & Sports, and the Indian High Commission.
19 June 2022, Leader of political party MDA, MP Ahmed Siyam Mohamed has announced that he will be contesting in the next year's Presidential election. Businessman Siyam is the owner of several resorts including the recently opened Siyam World. MDA was one of the coalition partners of President Yameen.
19 June 2022, A Maldivian aged 56 years died of COVID-19, after more than three weeks since the last death from COVID. With this, the number deaths from COVID-19 has reached 300.
