President Solih’s fisheries policies are conflicting

President Solih inaugurating Mas dhoani account. Photo by: President's Office

By: Dr. Mohamed Shainee

Even though, President Mr. Ibrahim Mohamed Solih pledged to make the state fisheries company profitable in the next one-and-half years, I think he had earlier promised to make MIFCO profitable in 3 months. If he can make that happen, he will go into history as a very effective president for fishing industry. Previous governments also tried to make MIFCO profitable, but all sorts of negative influence and corruption didn’t allow it happening. As you know, as Fisheries Minister I was never given the chance to make changes to MIFCO. But through policies I did influence to make things right. For e.g. when I assumed office in 2013, the Felivaru canning capacity was only 3 tons. We increased to 5 right away and then increased to 15 tons and finally to 50 tons at the end. The idea is not to sell any fish to Bangkok and rather value adds in Maldives. I had a written policy and was famous in saying that I will stop exporting any frozen whole skip jack from Maldives by the end of 5 years. However, various influence and corruption issues stopped me reaching that far but the capacity was developed. I do wonder if President Mr. Solih can overcome these negative forces that will be so good for the industry.  May be worth mentioning that when I was the Managing director of MIFCO, I started making structural changes to the company but these same forces finally convinced then President Mr. Nasheed and him personal told me that he is getting too much pressure from MDP activists and therefore he has to remove me. Then, he took me as a technical advisor to Minister until I left for my PhD.

At the event of last year’s fishermen’s day held in Gemanafushi island, President Mr. Solih said that his government would work to bolster the fishing industry, and make the company profitable. Yes, but what are his plans and thinking. It is anyone’s objective to make any company successful. We haven’t seen or heard of his plan on how to achieve this. Further, the wider fisheries policies are conflicting with each other. For e.g. to make company profitable he needs to make sure of value addition but his policy to allow foreign vessels to buy fish directly is in conflict as these vessels will buy the raw materials while with no obligation to process in Maldives. So, our local companies, including MIFCO will be competing in same international market with more overheads.

In February 2019, President Mr. Solih inaugurated “Masdhoani Account” claiming that it was a pledge of the administration as a mean of including fishermen in the banking system. But let me tell you that this is a joke. There is no one who knows the strategies behind this Masdhoani account. It’s a wholesome strategic plan by me to address all issues in fisheries. During my tenure, in every fisherman’s day I invited fishermen all around the country and held fisheries forums and collected their feed backs. So, this Masdhoani account was designed to address all those concerns. Fortunately, or unfortunately I didn’t get time to ink all those strategy in a policy paper but just sent some bullet points to President’s office to be included in the Manifesto. If you see President Mr. Yameen’s manifesto for 2018, you will see these policies has been mentioned. The Masdhoni account was designed and already completed and to be launched in 2018 September but unfortunately BML had no plastic for making the cards and therefore was not launched. The current government took it and launched it not knowing the thinking and strategy behind it and fishermen has lost confidence in this Masdhoni account. Should have asked me and I would have happily helped.

Speaking in the Jazeera Holhuashi held in GDh. Thinadhoo, President Mr. Solih has said that he will provide legal and financial protection to local fishermen. He said that the main objective of the Holhuashi was to gather ideas and recommendations from fishermen for the laws that will be made to further the industry. But again, what does that mean if the President cannot elaborate what he says. Or else the Fisheries Minister Ms. Zaha needs to take that and elaborate on it. Though I know what he is thinking, I don’t want to make assumptions.

President Mr. Solih also reiterated at one of his speech that it is also one of the most important goals of this administration to ensure the fisheries industry reached future generations, with the adoption of modern technology, while reflecting the ever-changing world economy and the global environment. In the same breath let me remind the administration that in the past 5 years I have introduced bird radars, sonars and on-board cooling systems. These technologies have been proven to be very effective. I also introduced dynamically stable binoculars and handed over to every single fishing vessel that applied, for free without any discrimination. I have developed a totally new fisheries, the diamond back squid fishery. I had signed the largest grant by fisheries Ministry with World Bank. Designed and even tendered for a multi species hatchery for aquaculture in Gaafu Alifu. I had found a solution for observer system and again designed and tendered for such a system towards the end of my time. So, what is this government going to introduce. I often see this government claiming my work as their own. The on-board cooling system was designed, funding secured from Saudi fund before I left. So, we need to be clear what the plan is and what new technology is being looked at.

Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture is currently in the middle of research to find a way to run ice plants with the support of local councils. President Mr. Solih, said that the lack of true benefit from ice plants was one of the biggest complaints by the fishing community, therefore establishing ice plants in local islands was in his manifesto. Let me make this easy for the administration. Honestly, there is no need of new research. There is enough experience already in Ministry. I was a technical director and in-charge when Ministry first established new generation of ice-plants in populated islands. I have to agree, before me there was a project in Fares-Maathoda that had installed an ice-plant. We developed ice plants in Ihavandhoo (North) and Guraidhoo (South). The Guraidhoo ice plant was handed over to the council and proved to be a disaster. Initially, we asked MIFCO to look after both Guraidhoo and Ihavandhoo ice plants. But when the council in Guraidhoo saw the profitability, they wanted to run the ice plant, which government handed over. After few months, the ice-plant had stopped running because the council did not have the technical capacity to maintain and run an ice-plant. For a stand-alone system, it was too expensive to hire technical crew but MIFCO already having many ice plants on-shore and in vessels could easily manage with no addition to technical staff. Therefore, the experience is already there.

To increase the availability of ice, it was my policy to have at least one ice plant in every atoll, which I implemented before the end of my time in office. I had developed more than two or three in larger atolls like Gaafu Alif and Gaafu Dhaal. The next step was to introduce ice or cooling systems on-board the vessels to decrease the dependency on onshore ice plants. Also, this was a strategy for preparing fishermen for multi-day fishing and reduces fuel cost.

What you have to understand is with each project there must be a strategy behind it. That is the real thinking which goes into it. Without that kind of strategy and thinking, projects are useless, and it won’t be effective. President Mr. Solih should have an overarching objective and have policies and strategies set towards that overarching objective.

Disclaimer: Above is an exclusive opinion written to Adamington Online by Dr. Mohamed Shainee who was the Former Minister of Fisheries & Agriculture at President Mr. Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom's administration. He holds a PhD in offshore fish cage designing from NTNU, Norway; holds a Masters in Marine Management from Dalhousie University, Canada; MSc. in Marine Technology from NTNU, Norway; and BEng. (Hons) degree in Marine Technology from University of Plymouth, UK.  Dr. Mohamed Shainee has over 10 years of experience in the technical, business and management aspects of fisheries and marine resources in the Maldives.  Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not reflect Adamington Online’s point-of-view