The ninth amendment to the Development Objective Grant Agreement (DOAG) has been signed.

The governments of Maldives and the United States of America signed the ninth amendment to the DOAG on Monday.

The signing ceremony was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmed Khaleel signed the amendment on behalf of the Maldivian government, with USAID Mission Director Gabriel Grau signing on behalf of the U.S. government.

Signed on 12 March 2019 between the two countries, the DOAG is a landmark development cooperation agreement.

Eight amendments have been brought to this agreement to date, bringing the total contribution from the U.S. to USD 25.94 million.

Through the ninth amendment concluded on Monday, the government of U.S. commits an additional USD three million to the archipelago nation to improve its technical capacity to manage public finances and improve the resilience of its economic and democratic governance.

The signing ceremony was joined by senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Asia as well as officials from USAID Mission to the Maldives.