Birds Eye View OF MAldives

The Maldivian Presidents office has announced that the country had 67,478 Tourists for the month of January. This makes it the strongest January in Tourist arrivals for the past five years. The Maldives private and Tourism Board has been extensively marketing Maldives for the past five years, while Maldivian Resorts have consistently scooped up travel awards world wide.

Sim Mohamed from MATI ( Maldives Association of Tourism Industry) said that while tourist figured did increase significantly, there have been some drastic dynamic changes in the tourism industry. Sim said  there has been alot of “surface arrivals”  (i.e. passengers in passenger liners passing though Maldives in a relatively less amount of time ) and these passengers  do not stay for the traditional  periods of time and tend to spend less , thus injecting less money into the economy.

He Also noted due to the global down turn in tourism, many Maldivian Resorts and Tour Operators have drastically cut their prices , some as steep as 30- 40 percent. This together with the introduction of many Low Budget Airlines has Made Maldives a much cheaper Destination than before. While this has increased tourist numbers and generated more money for the economy as Maldivian Government Bed Tax  the disposable income from Medium  Tourism Market is less hence it would take some time for the whole economy as a whole to fully benefit from the increased Tourism Arrivals .

The Maldivian Tourism Industry has been in a slow growth rate, first the aftermath of the Tsunami then the global financial crisis, but this has prompted the Tour Operators to be more innovative. The Fastest growing sector in the Tourism Industry in Maldives is the Live Abroad sector. This gives an affordable Alternative To Travel,Dive and Surf in the MAldives at Cheaper Rates.

MATTI says its staying positive for the yrear 2010 forecasting modest growth , but hoping it would materialize to a more significant Tourism Growth for the years after that.

AT the seminar the positive relationship of social liberation with  higher Gross Domestic Product resulting in lower corruption in the public and private sectors while opening up markets for the region was highlighted. India seems to be at the forefront of the economic liberalization in the SAARC region with many Free Trade Agreements being signed bilaterally with fellow SAARC countries. Mr.Sayeed also said that the 1.7 percent in world trade from the region had a lot more potential to grow, specially since  SAARC is home to more than one fifth of the world population. The current levels of inter-regional trade stood at mere 6 percent while intra-regional trade in, EU 58 percent, NAFTA was 62 percent and ASEAN 26 percent.

H.E. Sharat Sambharwal, the High Commissioner of India to Pakistan was the guest of honor, he said that it was India’s and specially Dr.Manmohan Singh’s vison to see South East Asia being transformed to a knowledge-biased economy. This could be achived only by rapidly increasing the pace and scope of the current inter-economic activity within SAARC.

Afghanistan’s mainstay is agriculture. The agricultural products they produce include opium, wheat, fruits, nuts, wool, mutton, sheepskin and lambskin.

Industries in Afghanistan includes small-scale production of textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, cement, hand woven carpet, natural gas, coal and copper. And their export partners are India 22.8%, Pakistan 21.8%, US 15.2%, UK 6.5% and Finland 4.4% as estimated on 2006.

For example, the government, in its cautious expansion of the tourist sector, encourages visits by upscale, environmentally conscientious tourists. Detailed controls and uncertain policies in areas such as industrial licensing, trade, labor, and finance continue to hamper foreign investment. Hydropower exports to India drove GDP growth to over 20% in 2007