Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed has extended gratitude to the management Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) for support rendered to the Maldives.

Minister Saeed, as part of his ongoing official visit to China, visited the bank’s headquarters in capital Beijing on Saturday.

He added that the bank’s support affirmed the importance attached by the Chinese side to extend their full support to implement the consensus reached between the presidents of Maldives and China.

Minister Saeed’s visit to China was to attend the 15th World Economic Forum, held at the Dalian Congress Hall in Dalian Province, China, from June 25th to June 27th.

As part of this visit, he has also met with the management of People’s bank of China (PBC) during which both sides deliberated on ways to expand cooperation between the two nations.

Besides this, the Minister also met with the Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, for discussions related to the free trade agreement (FTA) between the Maldives and China.

The chief of this discussion was on establishing a currency settlement system between the two countries, to enhance trade and commerce ties.

It is a key priority of Dr. Muizzu’s administration to seek such currency settlement agreements with bigger economic allies and frequent trade collaborators, to enhance trade convenience.

Source(s): sun.mv

50 undocumented migrants were handed over to the custody of Maldives Immigration on Saturday, during a joint operation carried out by the Immigration and Maldives Police Service on Saturday.

Police said the operation was focused on various areas of Male’ including the local market and other similar markets.

50 undocumented migrants were identified during the operation, noted the Police, adding all of them have now been handed over to the custody of Immigration.

As per the Police, Saturday’s operation was spearheaded by Immigration itself.

Home Minister Ali Ihusan said the issue of undocumented migrants would be resolved in three years under the recently launched ‘Operation Kurangi’.

However, he stressed that the goal is not to arrest and deport migrants, but to give them a chance to get regularized.

Notably, Maldives has recently halted the recruitment of unskilled laborers from Bangladesh due to illegal recruitment by submission of counterfeit documents.

Source(s): sun.mv

Maldives Customs Service has confiscated MVR 1.6 million worth of smuggled cigarettes.

Customs on Saturday said it recently conducted inspects in Male’ and Hulhumale’, as part of an investigation on alleged smuggled contraband.

The authority inspected one location from Hulhumale’ on Monday last week, and four venues from Male’ and Hulhumale’ later on Wednesday last week as part of the investigation.

173 cartons of 1,731,597 cigarettes were confiscated through Customs’ raids, with an estimated market value of MVR 1.6 million.

The duty on the now confiscated cigarette cartons is worth MVR 5.6 million, customs added.

Maldives Police Service and the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) both lended support in Customs’ operations. The authority thanked both law enforcement agencies for their support.

Source(s): sun.mv