President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has criticised former governments for not putting in the efforts to develop Addu city in the south of the country.
Speaking at the ceremony to inaugurate the Addu Gan airport development project, he said the city is behind in development.
“It is true! If Addu was developed with good intentions based on the foundation laid then, we would not have to do this work now,” he said referring to the time when the British Royal Air Force (RAF) was stationed in Addu.
Maldives was a British protectorate since 1887 and Gan was an important strategic staging post for enabling RAF aircraft to reach their onward destinations at their bases in the Far East.
Following the departure of the RAF after Maldives gained independence in 1965, the former RAF Gan airfield was developed into a civilian airport now known as Gan International Airport.
Solih said the modern equipment and facilities established by the British in Addu were destroyed once they left the country.
“Addu went back ages in terms of development since the day the British left. The latest technologies brought by the British were vandalised and taken away from here", he said about the government of former president Ibrahim Nasir.
“The reality we see is very bitter. Addu, Huvadhoo and Fuvahmulak are in the south of the Maldives. If honest work was done, we would not have had to hold this ceremony 66 years [after the British left].”
Referring to his decision to run for a second five-year term as president, Solih said his government is now working to double the economic growth in ten years.
Gan airport will be developed with a capacity of 1.5 million tourists annually. The project is financed through India Exim Bank.
