The Government of the Maldives has formulated new guidelines to lease land for resort development on a cross-subsidy basis.
The government formulated the guidelines in order to seek contractors to develop tourist resorts and integrated tourist resorts in accordance with current economic and social policies.
The new guidelines dictate projects that lease land under cross-subsidies should be published in the government gazette each year. Under the guideline, the president is tasked with approving the leasing of land for the projects and the Ministry of Tourism has the power to approve any land that is not on the list of land available for tourism-related projects. The guidelines also dictate that the agreement for leasing land under cross-subsidies should define the acquisition cost and the cost of leasing.
The new guidelines were published in the government gazette and implemented on August 26.
The government stated the purpose of the guidelines is to make it easier to seek investors for the Maldives tourism industry and contractors to conduct economic and social projects.