President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has ratified the bill that sought amendments to the Fisheries Act, which is to include regulations in establishing special fishing marinas that provide all of the services required by fishermen in one fishermen's harbor and for recreational fishing activities.

The bill was passed by the Parliament on Wednesday and was ratified today along with six other bills during a ceremony held today at the President's Office. 

While detailing the reasons why the acts needed to be put into force after the bills were ratified, President Muizzu said that the establishment of a sports fishing harbor is a presidential pledge of his and it could not be done earlier due to the state of the law. He said that many parties have expressed interest in developing such harbors.

"This is something many parties have already expressed interest in. We have also designated locations for such projects. Even so, we were unable to proceed with those opportunities such as developing sports fishing harbors due to the law, and I was unable to fulfill that pledge," said the President.

The bill proposed on behalf of the government by South Thinadhoo Constituency MP Ahmed Alsan Mohamed, which sought to amend the Fisheries Act so that foreign investors can be given the opportunity to develop sports fishing marinas and fishing harbors for commercial fishing, was passed in Parliament by 59 of the 62 MPs that were in attendance through a vote.

Three MPs voted against the bill.

The bill was designed to include a provision in Article 30 of the Fisheries Act, where Article 30 (a) reads that permission is to be given to develop such harbors. Section (b) of the article states that permission to develop such fishing harbors can only be given to places such as marinas, wharf piers and landing stations.

While regulations to manage the establishment of fishing harbors in amending the Fisheries Act have been determined, the management regulations for marinas specifically for recreational fishing will be written by the relevant ministries.

While the bill states this, the government is conducting an effort to find investors who will develop and manage sports fishing marinas in the five regions of Maldives.

According to the document shared by the Ministry of Economic Development Transport & Trade in finding investors who will develop sports fishing marinas in the five regions of Maldives, three lagoons have already been designated for the marinas.

The lagoons are K. Bochu Falhu, V. Maadhiggaru Falhu and GDh. Balomathidhoo Falhu.

As per the ministry's document, sports fishing marinas are to be established with the inclusion of two types of resources. They are the resources that should be available at a harbor and resources that should be available on land.

Resources that should be available at the harbor:

Resources that should be available on land:

The ministry's document reads that the government will provide sizable concessions for investment companies that want to establish sports fishing marinas.

This includes the lack of an acquisition fee in acquiring a plot on land or a part of the sea for long periods of time while moving forward with the project. Another concession is not having to pay duty fees for the equipment being brought to construct the marina for three years.

The document further states that foreign businesses will own 100 percent of the management and operational rights of the sports fishing marinas. 

While the government is seeking out investors, People's National Congress (PNC) Parliamentary Leader Ibrahim Falah has said during the preliminary debate to pass the bill in amending the Fisheries Act that it will be done soon.

Many other countries are successfully operating fishing harbors at quality standards.