Maldives President to meet biz leaders of India Inc

New Delhi: The newly elected President of Maldives, Abdula Yameen Abdul Gayoom, begins his first trip abroad with a four-day visit to India from Wednesday.

His visit comes in the backdrop of the island nation wanting to increase sourcing of products from India.

Official sources said “some proposals in the pipeline” were whether Maldives can utilise India as a source for some important and essential requirements which could be unveiled during the President’s visit.

Apart from meeting President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Gayoom will interact with business representatives.

A senior Government official said despite the setback that the GMR Group had suffered in Maldives, there was a fair amount of interest in business circles on the possibilities in the island nation.

The GMR Group and the Maldives Government are currently involved in arbitration in Singapore after the Indian company was asked to give up the contract that it won for managing the airport in Maldives.

The Maldives Government terminated the airport project claiming irregularities in the award of the contract, a point denied by the GMR Group, which points out that transparency in the bidding process was accepted by the World Bank affiliate, International Finance Corporation.

Officials pointed out some recent success stories for Indian companies investing in Maldives, such as a Mumbai-based company, which recently won a contract for converting waste disposal into energy.