Fisheries Minister Ahmed Shiyam has said that the ministry is working to bring the fisheries facility at Funahdoo Island in Thaa (Th) Atoll back into operation. The minister made the statement during Parliamentary question time on Tuesday, addressing a question by Member of Parliament (MP) for Thimarafushi, Abdulla Riyaz who had asked when fisherman would be able to sell their catch to the facility at Th. Funahdoo.
In his reply, Shiyam highlighted that an assessment done on the facility showed that MVR 157.3 million was needed just to complete the facility’s port alone.
“However, since I took over the ministry, we have physically sent people there and we believe that Funahdoo can be brought into operation more easily and less expensively and as such I would like to inform the honourable members [of Parliament] that we are working internally within the ministry to accomplish this,” Shiyam said.
He said additional feasibility studies were also being conducted with the hope of upgrading storage capacity at facilities across the country.
“Funahdoo is one of the facilities that will definitely give us this solution,” he said.
The facility at Funahdoo, which was developed as a fisheries factory, and which began purchasing fish in 2004, was owned by former Home Minister and former political leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali.
The company stopped purchasing fish, and ceased operations, in 2008. However, the government, on 6 March 2022, bought the factory and handed it over to MIFCO after the Bank of Maldives (BML) foreclosed on the facility due to non-payment of a loan taken from BML.