Video Speech by Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan，Former President of the Republic of Maldives at China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation

Video Speech by Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan，Former President of the Republic of Maldives at China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation

Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

21 November, 2022

Honourable guests, ladies and gentlemen, 

I thank the China International Development Cooperation Agency and the People's Government of Yunnan Province for inviting me to the China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development and Cooperation. I congratulate and thank His Excellency President Xi Jinping for the China Global Development Initiative. 

This year the Maldives and China celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations, a half century of close friendly relations between our two nations. During this time, China has assisted Maldives in many development projects and programmes including infrastructure development, disaster relief and disaster preparedness, education, health, and many other areas. 

In the past 50 years the Maldives has made great progress in economic, social and political fields.  The Maldives achieved full literacy and universal secondary education and health insurance for all, we enjoy the highest per capita income for any country in South Asia. Our hospitality industry is leading the world in luxury destinations. But many of these achievements are now under threat from natural and man made causes. The effects of climate change and the impact of COVID-19 pose existential threats to the country. 

The Maldives is a small island, large ocean country. Ninety-nine percent of my country is ocean.  Nearly half a million of us live on less than 200 sq km of land spreading over hundreds of small islands in the Indian Ocean. Our islands are barely 2 meters above sea level. Our main industries are tourism and fishing, which make up the largest share of our blue economy. Warming of the seas leading to greater acidification of the sea water is destroying the coral reefs that protect our islands, while the warming seas are creating tropical storms of greater ferocity and higher waves. As a result, more than a third of all our islands are facing serious beach erosion and infiltration of sea water into the freshwater lenses of islands. The impacts of these changes are devastating. The costs of mitigation and adaptation are becoming prohibitive. Following the opening up of the country after COVID-19, the tourism sector rebounded rapidly, but the sector depends on visitors from the more developed economies, including in Europe and China. Current forecasts of trends in the global economy seem to suggest a recession in many European countries. This could seriously negatively affect tourism revenues. The Maldives economy is starting to show the stresses resulting from climate change, COVID-19 and to some extent due to poor public policies and weak management. 

Governments alone will not be able to fend our nations against the threats facing us. Over-politicisation of public policies is leading to inefficient management of national resources. The private sector and the non-formal sectors have to play an active role to understand the situation of the people, especially the marginalized and vulnerable populations such as victims of natural disasters, and to take swift action to assist in the aftermath of any emergency situation. Therefore, I would like to suggest that the CIDCA should work closely with non-governmental agencies, local think tanks, and community organizations. 

In all of our countries we have such organizations, and they are ready to work with Chinese development agencies. There is plenty of experience we have gained in making this approach successful. 

I represent the SEAS Institute, an international initiative recently established to address climate change, sustainability and security of small island nations. We are prepared to work with China and small island nations in the Indian Ocean to create a network of local organizations and experts to study and reflect on the rapid changes associated with climate change and to propose and initiate action for mitigation and adaptation at local community level. 

I am grateful for the initiative of the CIDCA to organize this regional forum and look forward to working closely with all our friends. I thank the People's Government of Yunnan for hosting this meeting. 

Thank you all.