Mr President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my pleasure and honor to be here today, representing fisherfolk and Farmers of the Maldives, voicing out their concerns and needs.

This is a time when the world economy is turbulent, food security is a global concern and climate change threatens us all. In the midst of all these, my country, the Maldives is in the process of transforming into a modern democracy.

Indeed these are challenging times for us.

Consumer expectations and standards in premium markets are changing. We have to improve our harvesting and processing methods and techniques.

Therefore, our fishing boats, factories, equipment and the technology we use, need to be upgraded.

This requires both technical and financial assistance. Value added production is also an area where we need assistance. Simply exporting raw material is not enough and sustainable.

Maldives is a small island state, heavily depends on imported agricultural products, even for staple foods.

To reduce our heavy dependence on imported foods and also to ensure food nutrition security, we need financial and technical assistance to develop our much neglected agriculture sector.

We need to encourage, facilitate and support local participation in both fisheries and agriculture production and product diversification.

Many primary producers, fishers and farmers are burdened with loan debts. We need financial assistance to ease financing and to provide better terms for our fishing and farming communities. This is essential to revitalising the SMEs in the primary sectors and in addressing poverty alleviation in our island communities.

Mr. President, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Maldives is better known as a premium tourism brand. It evokes quality and beauty. Less known is the quality of “Maldive Fish.”

We catch our tuna, one by one, using pole and line. We process the fish in a unique way. We need to maximise this to our advantage.

In relation to the total world population, our pole-and-line fishery yields a very small volume. Therefore, we seek to position “Maldive Fish” as a premium brand.

Mr President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In conclusion I wish to reiterate the sincere appreciation and gratitude that we have for IFAD, FAO and other donors for the continued assistance to fisheries and agriculture development in the Maldives.

It is my sincere hope that you as our key partners in development will assist us in achieving goals and targets that we have set to improve livelihood and alleviate poverty in the Maldives.

Thank you.