Monday 16 June 2008

State of the Economy in the Maldives: Challenges and Solutions


OSA held a panel discussion on the state of the economy in the Maldives, with distinguished guest speakers:
  • Ahmed Zahir - Executive Editor, reporting focus on economy and politics, Haveeru.
  • Shafeenaz Sattar - Economist and Policy Analyst, Maldives Monetary Authority.
  • Adam Manik - Economist and Former Deputy Finance Minister.
  • Mohamed Wahyd - Private sector businessman, business consultant and economics teacher.
  • Ali Hashim - Private sector businessman and business consultant.
Presentations were followed by a series of interesting questions from the audience and key areas of concern raised include:
  • Understanding of economizing and the economy overall.
  • Importance of management within businesses.
  • Population consolidations.
  • Control of the economy by very few key players.
  • Government owned companies.
  • Negative growth since Tsunami in 2005.
  • Importance of monitoring policy.
  • Saving habits should be encouraged and instilled.
  • Tax.
  • Need for long term solutions.
What do you think about these issues? And how do they affect you in your daily life and work?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

tHERE IS NO FUTURE IN THE MALDIVIAN ECONOMY AS LONG AS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES AND THE ELITES (VILLA, UNIVERSAL, CHAMPA...ETC) LOSES ITS GRIP ON THE ECONOMY! I HOPE HASSAN SAEED IS NOT ACCEPTING MONEY FROM THESE BASTARDS (VILLA, CHAMPA, UNIVERSAL AND MANY OTHER SMALL TIME RUNNERS SUCH AS LOLLY JABIR) FOR HIS PRESIDENTIAL RUN!

Riaz Shareef said...

I'm a Maldivian with extensive background in Economics, particularly Macroeconomics. I live overseas. How do you expect me to comment if there is nothing to comment on? There is no script or a write up about your forums. Can you atleast keep an audio of the proceedings if you don't have someone to write a script?

Anonymous said...

How does free market and democracy help the poor (or just the average person) according to OSA?

Democracy and its neoliberal policies are capitalist in nature, it is the animal spirits of the capitalist class that determines driving force behind the economy. One might want to think twice about supporting OSA with its 'free market' policies for the reasons Joseph Stiglitz is not a neoliberal economist and the whole of the developing world remains poor. I find it hard to believe educated people like Shaheed and Saeed are promoting policies which have failed in rest of the developing world without even questioning it.
As far as i can see it, the economy is not 'pro poor' neither inward looking.
What redistributive policies does OSA proposes?

Anonymous said...

What do you guys know about economics we have

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