The Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO)'s acting managing director Ismail Fauzee has been made its CEO.

Ismail, who worked at MIFCO for 22 years, was made acting managing director in late December, while his new appointment was made last week.

The company is a primary operator in the economically and traditionally important fishing industry; being the sole buyer of hefty shares of fish caught in the Maldives.

MIFCO supplies fish to its canneries, having acquired them on credit and in 2018 received MVR 37 million from the central government to pay off outstanding bills at the end of the year.

MIFCO was previously run as an independent state enterprise before announcing near bankruptcy in 2016, at which point the State Trading Organization acquired it.

It was revealed in December that the previous government had spent MVR 621 million to keep the company alive, and President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has pledged to make it profitable within two years.