Maldives pres leaves for N.America for SIDS conference

President Dr Mohammed Muizzu will leave for North America on Friday to attend the fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4) which will be held from 27 to 30 May 2024 in St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda.

The President's Office held a press conference on Thursday to provide information on the conference. The conference will be held under the theme of “Charting the course toward resilient prosperity." 

The President will share the challenges facing Maldives' development and how assistance will be needed to overcome them. The President will also make seven statements. Maldives will also hold three side events.

This is the fourth conference in a series held every 10 years. The conference will be attended from Maldives by:

The President will also meet with leaders of various countries to strengthen bilateral and multilateral relations as time permits.

Speaking at Thursday's press conference, Environment Minister Thorig said many of the decisions taken at the conference for the past 10 years (including the milestones decided at the conference held in Samua 10 years ago) have not been executed.

"Many of the things that were set for the last 10 years have not been completed due to major challenges. So this time too, we will include that in the document we prepare," he said.

The minister noted that many of these things have not been completed due to a lack of funds.

“Especially at concessional rates we did not get the funds we need for small islands and also the global economy suffered more in major shocks and especially during this pandemic, the entire economy of the countries [many countries are dependent on tourism],” he said.

The Minister added that at the conference: