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A family office based in Dubai has announced its intention to invest $ 8.8 billion to build a “Blockchain and Digital Assets” financial center in the Maldives, a program that the Indian Ocean archipelago short of cash will help supply through compliance with imminent debts.
The planned investment led by the Family Office MBS Global Investments over five years would exceed the annual GDP of the Maldives of around 7 billion dollars, but Moosa Zameer, Minister of Finance, said that the country had to “jump” to diversify tourism and fishing.
The debt to come in the next two years has been “the biggest challenge we have,” Zameer told Financial Times in a video interview, adding that the agreement was “something that we consider as a potential contributor to get us out of certain difficulties in which we are”.
MBS, who says that he manages assets worth $ 14 billion, is the family office of a rich Qatari, Sheikh Nayef Bin Eid Al Thani. It plans to finance the investment of the Maldives by pressing its network of family offices and its individuals to form a consortium.
MBS director general, Nadeem Hussain, said that the progressive project could be funded by actions and debt and that the company’s commitments “north of” $ 4 billion at $ 5 billion had already been guaranteed.
“We appreciated the compensation for what was involved in terms of funding and we made the necessary alliances and brought the necessary partners to ensure that we have it,” said Hussain. “It’s a large sum of money.”
On Sunday, MBS and the Maldives signed a joint venture agreement on the project.
According to the Masterplan project, the International Financial Center for Maldives will be a center of 830,000 m² capable of accommodating 6,500 people and providing a job for 16,000 in the capital Male.
“Financial freezone for blockchain and digital assets worldwide”, he would aim to triple the GDP of the Maldives in the four years and generate revenues of “much more than $ 1 billion by the fifth year,” said the Master plan.
The announced investment only occurs for months after India has unveiled a bailout of $ 760 million so that the Maldives contain a possible sovereign defect.
In December, “external liquidity pressures from the Moody’s Moody’s rating agency were strengthened given the bonds of substantial external debts”, including $ 600 to $ 700 million this year and around $ 1 billion in 2026, including a $ 500 million sukuk, a form of debt that follows Islamic Sténages.
Zameer recognized the role that India and China had played as “development partners” in his country, but said that the agreement of the financial center offered a new model.
“With MBS, we are going into business, it will be a company that is completely different from traditional loans models we make,” said the Minister of Finance.
The advantages of the archipelago include political stability, good connectivity and proximity to large markets such as India and the Gulf countries. But a superior Indian businessman said that he “would not be easy” for Male to become a regional financial center, in particular given the competition of established centers such as Dubai and Maurice.
