Bharat Lal, the Director General of National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) has concluded a fruitful visit to the Maldives.

The NCGG’s Director General led a delegation of senior officials from the government of India during his visit to the Maldives from November 19 – 21.

The visit saw the delegation reviewing the ongoing cooperation with the Civil Service Commission of Maldives based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed during the state visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi back in 2019.

In accordance with the MoU, 1,000 civil servants from Maldives are to be trained by 2024.

India’s Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions revealed that even in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, a total of 534 Maldivian civil servants underwent training in India.

In a Twitter post following his visit, the NCGG’s Director General expressed gratitude to the Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdulla Shahid for receiving him and the delegation and for enriching the delegation with his wisdom to further solidify the capacity of Maldivian civil servants to ensure delivery of public services and strengthen institutions.

He also assured that India is “fully committed” to assist Maldives in realizing its full potential.

During the visit to Maldives the delegation had a detailed meeting with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and members of the Civil Service Commission.

NCGG’s Director General happily notes that at present, 534 Maldivian civil servants have been trained to enhance their capacity to promote good governance, transparency, and assured public service delivery, in turn easing the livelihoods of residents.

He also talked with the trained civil servants and stressed on the role of civil servants in ensuring efficient, effective and tech-driven service delivery.

The delegation also sat down with FM Shahid where extensive discussions were held on further expanding capacity-building cooperation in emerging areas to promote democracy and good governance.

FM Shahid went on to praise the government of India for enhancing the capacity, knowledge, and skills of the Maldivian civil servants.

The DG also held discussions with the Minister of Economic Development, Fayyaz Ismail and Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Ibrahim Hassan to speak about several characteristics of good governance, transparency, and efficient public service delivery in the archipelago nation.

The ministers applauded the dependable efforts of NCGG and noted that the programme is “very popular” among officials. They also noted that it helps the government to improve democratic governance and the quality of life for the people.

Meetings were also held with the Minister of Health, Ahmed Naseem as well as the Foreign Secretary, Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed, Chairman of the Information Commission and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

During their visit to ACC, the delegation engaged in discussions regarding capacity building, ensuring transparency, and preventing any corruption by use of digital governance.

Throughout the many discussions held over the course of the past few days, the government of Maldives is to have requested the NCGG to depute experts for a few months in different fields to handhold various department officials and proposed to hold conferences on multiple subjects with the help of Indian subject-matter experts.

Further, the delegation visited many ongoing infrastructural project sites including housing projects, roads and bridges as well as new seafront development project being undertaken with the assistance from the Indian government.

Said projects are deemed to have a transformative impact on the lives and livelihood of the people of Maldives.

The press release goes onto note that both India and Maldives are determined to work together to improve the lives of people.

The governments of both neighboring countries pledged to strengthen the ongoing cooperation and intensify efforts in ensuring transparency, capacity building of civil servants, and re-orientation of officials to further enhance governance, transparency, and ease of living in the island nation.

The press release also highlighted that during the visit, the delegation was accompanied by the High Commissioner of India to Maldives and other senior officials, on a visit to Ukulhas island in Alif Alif atoll, where they held talks with the council president and councilors regarding the work undertaken with the assistance of the Indian government.

The director general also interacted with the Indian community working in sectors including health, education, tourism and hospitality at the Convention Center bult with the assistance from the Indian government, during the visit.

The visit taught the delegation that the convention center which hosts multiple facilities has helped the island community immensely. The center also serves as a tourist attraction and has boosted the tourism and income of island residents.

The NCGG, established by the Indian government in 2014 as an apex–level autonomous institution under the auspices of the ministry is mandated to enhance capacity building and train civil servants and technocrats of India and other developing countries,