Deputy mayor Shamau Shareef has said he will change people’s view that Male’ is a difficult city to live in.

Speaking on RajjeTV on the subject of the capital's future, Shamau said that the city council and the new adminsitration will first focus on the most fundamental problems, which includes solving the housing issue in Male’.

Highlighting the planned development of Hulhumale’, Shamau said what Male’ needs is a redevelopment plan, which is similar to what the MDP government did with the city council.

Also on the show, former Male’ council member Mohamed Aiman said that they had received a 30 million euro fund to develop Male’ into a smart city but that the project stalled after President Abdulla Yameen’s administration took away the powers of the council.

He said that Male’ would have become a safe and peaceful city had it been developed as a smart city, which would comprise of the city lights being upgraded to LEDs, implementing face recognition technology into government branches, and providing cheap internet services.