Maldives Industrial Development Free Zone will be co-owned by five SOEs

The Maldives Industrial Development Free Zone (MIDFZ) – a new state transshipment company the government plans on establishing – will be co-owned by five existing SOEs, according to the President’s Office.

The decision to establish MIDFZ was made by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu during a cabinet meeting on Sunday. According to the Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed, the MIDFZ will be a 100 percent state-owned enterprise that will focus on “economic diversification, ensuring economic security and tapping into the business of transshipment and re-exporting.”

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Abdulla Nazim Ibrahim, the principal secretary to the president on public policy, told reporters that the State Trading Organization (STO), Maldives Ports Limited (MPL), Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), Urbanco, and Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) will all own shares in MIDFZ.

Nazim said the biggest focus of the new company will be to import more than Maldives’ domestic needs, and re-export to other countries.

We hope to generate a good revenue from this, he said.

Nazim said that MIFDZ will need at least 100 hectors of land, and that the government is looking into both Thilafushi and Giraavaru Falhu as viable options.

Nazim said that the government also plans on allocating land from the Uthuru Thila Falhu (UTF) to produce food for Maldives’ domestic needs, and to seek investments for the project.

Planning and arranging the construction of a transshipment port in the greater Male’ area and initiating the works for the project is part of the current administration’s ‘Hafuthaa 14’ roadmap.

President Muizzu has also pledged to initiate a project to develop a transshipment port with bunkering services in L. Gaadhoo – a protected island – within the first 14 weeks of his administration.