Today?s first meeting of the Economic Advisory Council to the President focuses on key economic challenges facing the country today. The Economic Advisory Council to the President held its inaugural meeting today. The discussion at the meeting focused on key economic challenges facing the country today.

Speaking at the meeting, the President emphasised that the Council had been established to widen the scope of consultation among stakeholders on formulating Government policies on key issues of the national economy. He expressed his hope that the establishment of the Council would pave the way for the Government to canvass a much broarder spectrum of views in formulating the national economic policy in the period ahead.

The members of the Economic Advisory Council to the President, established on 14 March, are Mr. Mohamed Umar Maniku, Mr. Champaa Hussain Afeef, Mr. Abdulla Saeed and Mr. Mohamed Solih.

The President noted that the four members of the Council are stalwarts of the Maldives? tourism industry and that they were highly experienced entrepreneurs of the private sector.

The President highlighted the fact that the national economy had undergone promising developments over the years, and that the views and ideas of the private sector were of the utmost importance in his efforts to formulate a progressive policy package to sustain and accelerate the current pace of economic progress in the Maldives.

Sunday, March 19, 2006