President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has announced that the government has decided to offer full scholarships to 45 individuals to pursue studies in Fisheries Management. The President made this statement while speaking on the fourth episode of the “With the People” podcast. The President said that if the full potential of the fisheries sector is realized, it could contribute up to three times more to the GDP than tourism.
Noting that the Maldives has a vast sea area and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by the grace of Allah, the President said that the government has not yet been able to derive economic benefits or tap into the EEZ as desired.
“We practice very sustainable fishing. We catch each fish individually. We don’t use nets to sweep like foreign countries do. So, the whole world accepts our fishing practices. Therefore, we can expand our fishing to the entire sea area. Even without going that far, there are many things we can do. There are ways we can utilize fishing and other marine resources,” the President said.
The President highlighted that opportunities are now open for foreign parties to invest in various areas, including mariculture, and things are progressing. Therefore, he said the government’s policy is to utilize ocean resources in the most economically beneficial way.
“We have established a college named Maldives College for Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the National University. We will be offering full scholarships for Bachelor of Fisheries Management from this college in the coming days. All preparations for this have been made. We estimate that we can provide scholarships to 45 students based on our current budget allocation. We are also running other smaller courses,” the President said.
The President stated that this college is a significant step towards developing human resources for the sector. He added that the government is also working through higher education to facilitate scholarships and courses in various fields related to fisheries.
