Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdulla Shahid has met some island councillors during his ongoing tour across Alif Alif atoll.

His first meeting was with members of Ukulhas island council, after which he travelled to Rasdhoo island in the same atoll and met with the island’s Councillors. The minister’s final stop was at Thoddoo island.

During his visit to Rasdhoo, he held discussions with island Councillors, mainly revolving around developing the agricultural sector of the island, as well as marketing the agricultural products to the international market.

Further, Minister Shahid also visited the areas affected by soil erosion on the island after which he took to twitter, writing that the country’s vulnerability to climate change is “clearly visible” and that urgent action is required to fight it, in order to “save our islands, homes and people”.

In addition, the ministry revealed that the government has allocated MVR eight million to carry out coastal protection projects in Rasdhoo, from the Indian grant assistance.

The project has since been tasked to Maldives Transport and Contracting Company.

Shahid’s meeting with the Councillors from Thoddoo were joined by the constituency MP, Hassan Shiyaan. The meeting observed fruitful discussions with the island council on achieving strategic interventions which are needed to market and promote the island’s harvests and sustainable livelihoods, to the international market.

FM Shahid also took to twitter, writing that he is “impressed” by the scale of agricultural industry in the island.

The minister arrived in the atoll as a Special Envoy of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to inaugurate he “Tech Fair 2019” in Ukulhas along with the 13th International Conference on Software, Knowledge, Information Management and Applications “SKIMA 2019”. He also opened the Ukulhas Convention Centre, funded jointly by the governments of Maldives and India.