The government has defined the economic activities to be permitted within the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Maldives and established a minimum investment threshold.

The President’s Office announced this via a presidential decree issued on Sunday.

Since it was issued, the presidential decree has been publicized in the government gazette.

Further, it specifies that an SEZ project requires a minimum investment of USD 100 million.

It goes on to identify nine strategic investment sectors and specifies that in assessing proposals for strategic investment sectors, excluding financial, the developer's proposed minimum fixed investment value for the entire venture will be considered the investment value.

In addition to this, the decree clarifies that the investment value of proposals within the financial sector will be both the fixed investment associated with the initial setup as well as the capital investment committed by the developer, to introduce the financial service to the Maldives and initiate operations.

It also highlights that the total investment allocated to businesses that operate outside of the strategic components must not exceed the increasing investment made by the developer in the proposed strategic investment components.