Finance Minister Hassan Zareer stated tonight that 1,273 projects are currently signed and ongoing in the Maldives, and that efforts are being made to complete all of those projects.

Answering a question asked by a person at the government-hosted "Ahaa" forum, Zareer stated that harbor development projects have experienced some delays due to the Middle East war that began in March. According to Zareer, the reason for this is difficulties encountered in importing materials such as rock boulders.

MVR 393 million has been included in this year's budget for harbor development.

Zareer stated that despite project delays, the ministry's monitoring team is looking into those matters and working to carry out projects according to the required order of priority.

"We are carrying out projects by prioritizing them in a specific way, with each minister inspecting under their charge the project they run, and we are also allocating funds according to those priorities. Therefore, we are working to ensure that all projects in all islands progress as prioritized by us, looking at the availability of funds," he said.

MVR 8.3 billion was set aside in this year's budget for PSIP projects. So far, MVR 4.8 billion has been spent from that budget.