Minister of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture Dr. Hussain Rasheed Hassan has inaugurated the project, “Promotion of Blue Economy in the Fisheries sector of the Maldives”.

The inauguration ceremony of the project was held on Monday.

The project is funded by the Government of Japan and is implemented with the technical assistance of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Takeuchi Midori, Ambassador of Japan to the Maldives and senior staff of the Ministry also attend the ceremony.

In his address at the event, Minister Dr. Hussain emphasized on the Maldives and Japan's bilateral relations, and expressed his gratitude to the Government of Japan for the assistance provided to the Maldives in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. Minister also thanked the Japanese government for its continued efforts in developing the Maldivian fisheries sector.

The Blue Economy project is formulated to implement after the issues identified for a solution in the fisheries sector, under the Sustainable Fisheries Development Plan [MASPLAN] project conducted from 2014 to 2017 with the assistance of the Government of Japan.

This project will be carried out in three components; trade competitiveness of sustainably produced key fishery products of oceanic fisheries, adoption of resource-efficient production methods in the live-bait fishery, and enhancing coping capacity of fishing communities against external changes.

The first joint coordination committee meeting of the project was also held after the inauguration ceremony.