His Excellency Dr Mohamed Muizzu, President of the Republic of Maldives, announced a restructuring of the state agriculture company and reaffirmed plans for ten resorts owned on behalf of all Maldivians, in a briefing that placed food security and tourism ownership at the centre of the government’s diversification agenda.
Agro National Corporation Limited, known as AgroNat, is to become a subsidiary of Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company Limited, MIFCO. The President’s Office said the change is intended to sustain AgroNat’s operations, strengthen food security and develop agriculture, while creating a domestic market where fishermen and farmers can sell directly.
Bringing Fisheries and Agriculture Under One Roof
AgroNat was established in April 2020 under the Maldives Fund Management Corporation to develop agriculture as an industry. Bringing it under MIFCO places the country’s two primary production sectors within a single corporate structure, with the larger fisheries company carrying the balance sheet and the management capacity.
The President said the arrangement also allows the new market building in Malé to be handed to MIFCO to operate, rather than remaining a direct government responsibility. He said the facility is expected to be completed by 10 December next year, serving both traders and the public.
The move sits within a wider consolidation of state owned enterprises announced at the same briefing, which includes merging Fenaka Corporation’s island utility services into STELCO and transferring the Road Development Corporation’s functions to MTCC. The President has said maintaining parallel state companies doing the same work drives up expenditure.
Ten Resorts, One Shareholder Base
On tourism, the President reaffirmed the commitment to develop ten resorts on ten designated islands with Maldivian ownership, describing a more equitable distribution of the wealth generated by the industry as a priority. Implementation is targeted within thirty six months.
Under the model, citizens receive an annual payment in foreign currency from resort profits, distributed equally. The President described Maldivians as the rightful owners of the nation’s natural assets, deserving a direct and systematic share. Work on the first projects is expected to begin in November, with the islands to be finalised, and payments of at least 400 United States dollars a person a year anticipated from 2030.
For a tourism sector approaching its sixth decade, the proposal addresses a long standing question about how resort earnings reach households beyond wages and taxes. The answer the government has chosen is direct shareholding at national scale.
The Questions That Follow
Both measures turn on execution. For AgroNat, the test is whether integration into MIFCO improves procurement and distribution for farmers, or simply moves a cost centre. Agriculture and fisheries have different seasonality, different handling requirements and different buyers, and a single operator will need to serve both without one crowding out the other.
For the resort programme, the variables are capital structure and timing. Ten properties developed within thirty six months requires financing, operators and construction capacity secured close to simultaneously, and the dividend projection rests on occupancy and rate assumptions that will only be testable once the properties open. The government has said the islands will be named shortly.
The President also said judicial amendments covering minor financial cases and civil disputes involving large businesses will be submitted to the third session of Parliament, and addressed questions on recent amendments to income tax and foreign exchange legislation.
