Cabinet to issue credit letters to ease dollar shortage

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

The cabinet on Tuesday had decided to provide letters of credit facility to importers of basic food items and other necessary commodities to Maldives in an effort to ease the present dollar shortage felt across the country. This arrangement is to be made under the 50 million dollar trade credit facility provided to the Maldives by the Indian government.

The cabinet’s decision came after intensive discussions on measures that may be taken to address the dollar shortage in the Maldives, a President’s Office press release said.

A committee consisting of senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and the Ministry of Economic Development is to be set up to review applications for letters of credit and to provide letters of credit to importers in priority order.

Ministry of Economic Development is to announce the arrangements made for issuing letters of credit. The ministry will further publicize the details of those who receive the letters of credit. The President Office press release stated that the government believes that this measure would ease the problem of dollar shortage.

The increased number of expatriate workers in the Maldives has contributed to the problem of dollar shortage in the Maldives. It is estimated that every month more than US$ 2 million are being sent out from the Maldives by the expatriate workers. The cabinet members noted that reducing the number of expatriate workers was also an important measure to be taken.

Members of the cabinet also deliberated on the ongoing management auditing of government ministries undertaken by the President’s Office.

The purpose of a management audit is to appraise the performance of offices and to evaluate the services being provided by the offices.

The President’s Office is currently doing the management audit of the Ministry of Health and Family.

Vice President Dr. Mohamed Waheed will supervise the management audits of government ministries.

At the meeting the cabinet also discussed on introducing an informative national identification number to citizens. The national identification number would be used for the purposes of government benefits, healthcare, pension, tax administration and other governmental purposes.

The members of the cabinet agreed on the importance of introducing a national identification number and to modify the national identification number issued by the Department of National Registration into an informative number.

It was also agreed that only this number would be used by all government offices as an identification of individuals.

Cabinet also discussed the areas for giving national honors and shields and decided to conduct a review of the current honor system by a ministerial committee. The committee selected includes Minister of Civil Aviation and Communication, Mahmood Razee; Minister of Human Resources, Youth and Sports, Hassan Latheef; and Minister of Education, Dr. Musthafa Luthfy.

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