New work visa regulations frustrating business

Picture-perfect hotels and superb service are synonymous with Maldives tourism.

However the country’s number one industry has always grappled with a shortage of skilled workers.

To counter this dozens of skilled foreign workers enter the Maldives each year, so the recent change in procedures and requirements for work visas has thrown the industry into disarray.

“What we didn’t need was to re-invent the wheel,” says Ibrahim ‘Sim’ Mohamed, secretary general of the Maldivian Tourism Industry (MATI).