Indian businessmen pitch 5 major proposals to Maldives

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has pitched five major proposals to Maldives to promote further collaboration in tourism and trade.

Maldives Investment Forum 2016 - held in The Taj Palace in New Delhi, India last Tuesday – was held in association with FICCI.

Multiple FICCI-member companies, as well as other international companies visited the forum.

Speaking during the inauguration ceremony of MIF 2016, member of Executive Committee of FICCI and CEO of Sun International, Vikramjit Singh Sahney said that a lot of Indian businessmen wanted further collaboration with Maldives.

Sahney announced five major proposals of behalf of FICCI to promote further collaboration in tourism and trade, the most significant of which is direct flight operations between Maldives and multiple Indian destinations to boost the number of Indian tourist arrivals from India.

He said that high-class, luxury tourism label of Maldives discouraged a lot of Indians from visiting Maldives.

“I think some who belong to the middleclass are intimidated. I recommend staring direct flights to Maldives from Indian cities such as New Delhi and Bombay. It may also be a good idea to establish budget hotels in Maldives. India has many budget hotel chains,” said Sahney.

He said that the image Maldives was a holiday destination only for rich Europeans needed to be put an end to, and that if that was accomplished, the entire Indian population was open to Maldives as a tourist market.

“I was talking to the Economic Minister about this a short while ago that if these two things are done; the entire 1.25 billion-people population of India would be in the grasp of Maldives,” said Sahney, who also served as President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

5 proposals by FICCI:

1. Find areas of collaboration in trade between the two countries in addition to fish, cement, and agricultural produce.

2. Sign agreements to secure business assurance, resolution to issues, investment protection and promotion.

3. Increasing visits between the two countries by business delegations, and increasing trade discussions.

4. Increasing number of flights to Maldives, and increasing number of budget hotels accessible to the Indian middleclass.

5. Providing training and experience to Maldives in health and education via FICCI.

In a press conference during MIF 2016, Minister of Economic Development of Maldives, Mohamed Saeed said that the Indian travel market had shown little interest in Maldives until very recently.