Thursday
2nd May 2024
Dhivehi Edition
Former President Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayyoom
The opposition leader, former President Abdullah Yameen, stated that India had strongly opposed the i-Havan project, and had worked against it.
He mentioned India's opposition as he spoke with Dhiyares, the sister-newspaper of The Maldives Journal; during the first exclusive interview the former President has given since he had been acquitted by the Supreme Court of a 2019 Criminal Court verdict that had sentenced him to a five-year prison sentence.
"It wasn't from neighbouring countries, you know. It was directly India that protested so much against it", said former President Yameen.
Describing the i-Havan project, the former President said that it was not only a trans-shipment port. He said that the project included components relating to, but not limited to, tourism and oil refinery, as well. He said that these additional components were necessary as he had thought that a port, by itself, would not be profitable.
He said that he had first proposed the idea to Indian businessmen during his visit to India; the first official visit of his presidency. He said that he had planned for those businesses to take over individual components of the trans-shipment port.
However, given that he had not received a satisfactory answer from the Indian business community, he said that he had gone into talks with other parties with regards to getting the project up and running. He said that he had contracted India to do the feasibility study of the project, but they had failed to complete the study.
The former President said that the i-Havan project would revolutionise the Maldivian economy and bring a lot of development to the north of the country. He said that his motivation for initiating the project was the fact that many large cargo vessels took routes within the vicinity of the northern Ihavandhippolhu region.
He said that the project was something that could be implemented, and that the project had not been "parked".
He noted that if a third-party were to be contracted to carry out the project, they would have to invest a lot into it themselves, which would diminish the Maldivian government's control over the project. He said that he had thus decided that the Maldivian government should reclaim the land. He noted that the dredger, "Maha Jarrafu", had been purchased for this reason.