President Muizzu said a full copy of the Eagle Hills agreement for Rasmalé would be sent to a parliamentary committee. Speaking on PSM’s Nation Chat, Muizzu said a special bill on real estate tourism would be submitted to parliament and opened for public comment for about two weeks before becoming law. No responsible government could handle the deal more transparently, he added, accusing the opposition of insincere attempts to derail the project.
Muizzu said he was the only Maldivian president to have openly opposed Zionism. He cited his ban on Israeli passport holders, which he said many in the tourism industry and some in the ruling PNC had urged him not to impose, and his declaration at the UN that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians. Responding to opposition claims that Rasmalé would give Zionists a foothold, he said the agreement would legally bar Israeli citizens from buying, leasing or entering the development, and cap buyers of any single nationality at 25 per cent. Interest in Rasmalé properties had come mainly from Muslims in Arab countries, he added, and the city would have mosques and the call to prayer, with no alcohol, pork or casinos.
All eligible applicants for plots and flats in the Malé region, including Rasmalé, will receive housing, Muizzu pledged. He insisted the Eagle Hills project would not reduce housing for Maldivians. Some 58,505 applications – 35,930 for flats and 22,575 for plots – were submitted under the “Housing for All” scheme and are being assessed by the housing ministry. Muizzu said the Eagle Hills project would drive development of the remaining 650 hectares of Rasmalé, as utility companies were keen to supply electricity, water and sewerage across the city. He accused the opposition of trying to stop the project to keep the government from fulfilling its housing pledge. He said the list of plot recipients would be finalised this year and flats in the Malé region completed by mid-2028.
State institutions and companies signed five agreements with Chinese counterparts at the China-Maldives Investment Cooperation Forum, three of them with Sinomach Hainan Development. MIFCO signed an MoU with the Chinese company to explore exporting frozen whole fish to China. MIFCO will act as supplier while Sinomach Hainan identifies market opportunities, ahead of talks on raising export volumes from 2027. STO signed an agreement with Sinomach Hainan to import essential food items and other general goods, while Horizon Fisheries signed one to export fish products. The trade ministry also partnered with Sanya’s municipal commerce and investment promotion bureaus. The Maldives National University signed an agreement with China Harbour Engineering Company on research, training and an agricultural demonstration centre.
Speaking at the forum, held alongside Maldives Expo 2026, President Muizzu invited Chinese enterprises to partner with Maldivian businesses on fisheries processing, supply chains, distribution and market access. Between January 2025 and August 2026, the Maldives imported about US440 million worth of goods from China, of which about US124 million entered under the free trade agreement that took effect in January 2025, Muizzu said. He listed renewable energy, food security, logistics, digital technology, AI, healthcare and sustainable urban development among investment opportunities.
Parliament approved pay rises for the speaker, cabinet ministers and the chief justice, along with a new MVR5,000 (US$324) monthly service allowance for island council presidents, vice presidents and councillors. The speaker’s monthly salary and allowances will rise from MVR73,325 to MVR95,125. Ministers’ pay will rise from MVR58,500 to MVR75,500 through higher vehicle allowances. The chief justice’s pay will rise from MVR91,000 to MVR95,125, matching the speaker’s. Island council presidents will now earn MVR30,500, vice presidents MVR25,000 and councillors MVR23,000. Opposition parties alleged the rises were meant to discourage the heads of the three branches of state from speaking out against the government’s Rasmalé deal with Eagle Hills,.
Mohamed Farushath resigned as president and member of the Maldives Media and Broadcasting Commission. He cited “unresolvable challenges” to carrying out the commission’s work in full and treating all media outlets fairly and equitably. In his resignation letter to President Muizzu, obtained by Mihaaru, Farushath noted that the law requires commission members to uphold media standards and ethics impartially. His resignation came while media outlets were being invited to comment on proposed changes to the government’s annual financial assistance scheme for media. Under the changes, outlets would qualify after one year of registration instead of three. A former Maldives Media Council secretary general, Farushath was appointed on 27 October last year to head the seven-member commission, which was created under a contentious media law. Most outlets boycotted the election of its media representatives.
The Maldives Journalists Association asked police to urgently investigate threats and online harassment against journalists who went on a media tour of the UAE organised by Eagle Hills over the Rasmalé project. In a letter to the police chief, the MJA said social media accounts had circulated photos and videos of the journalists, branding them “traitors”, “Zionists” and “Jews”. The campaign had escalated to threats of physical harm and death, it said. The MJA requested a security risk assessment and police protection for the journalists and their families. It also urged media outlets to clearly separate and label sponsored content, in line with the journalists’ code of ethics.
Parliament’s judiciary committee closed its inquiry into the parole release of convicted drug trafficker Abdulla Ibrahim 'Abucha'. The Maldives Correctional Service had declined to provide details, citing a wrong date in the committee’s letter. The letter said Abucha, who was serving 25 years over a 98kg drug smuggling case, was released on 1 October, when he was actually paroled on 29 September. In its reply last Thursday, Corrections said no one serving a 25-year sentence had been paroled on 1 October. The letter had also described the case in detail, including the dismissal of all parole board members and Abucha’s re-arrest after the home minister deemed the release wrongful. PNC members voted to close the matter without further inquiry.
The Malé City Group of Hospitals will be dissolved and replaced by a Maldives Tertiary Hospitals Group, which will bring all government tertiary hospitals under a single administration, President Muizzu announced. The hospitals will be integrated within three to four months from November without additional staff, he said. He added that the restructuring was meant to cut costs, end duplication and let specialists work across hospitals. Foreign specialists will also be stationed in the Maldives.
The Malé City Group of Hospitals contracted a joint venture of British and Indian companies to build a specialist cancer centre with a radiotherapy unit. MCGH CEO Ibrahim Abdul Razzaq Haleem said government hospitals offer chemotherapy and some other cancer treatment, but not radiation therapy, nuclear medicine or PET-CT scans. Besides radiotherapy, the centre will have operating theatres, inpatient wards, a chemotherapy day-care unit, CT simulation and pathology services, and emergency and critical care for cancer patients. It is due to be completed in phases by 2028.
The 2027 state budget, due to be submitted on Thursday, aims to complete and hand over at least 70 per cent of ongoing infrastructure projects, President Muizzu said, with priority on hospitals and schools. He said conflicts in the Middle East had weighed on tourism and tax revenue, but pledged continued fiscal discipline. Housing projects including Rasmalé were structured around future revenue to avoid new borrowing, he added.
Supreme Court Justice Ali Rasheed Hussain asked the Judicial Service Commission to let him retire at the end of the year, several media outlets reported, citing sources. The request was submitted last week, but the JSC has not announced or decided on it, and his reason is unknown. A judge since 2007, Ali Rasheed served at the Criminal, Civil and Drug courts before his appointment to the Supreme Court in September 2020. He presided over the Criminal Court bench that sentenced former President Yameen to prison in 2019.
Maldives Finance and Leasing Company became the country’s first national direct access entity accredited to the Green Climate Fund, the company said. The status allows it to develop and submit funding proposals for climate projects directly to the world’s largest dedicated climate fund. The accreditation was approved at the GCF board’s 46th meeting in Songdo, South Korea.
