Translation: Solih administration’s ambitious 100-day agenda

Hours after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih took the oath of office Saturday, the president’s office published a 15-page document outlining his agenda for the first 100 days.

There are 161 pledges covering 23 sectors with targets set for the first day, the first week, the first month, and the first 60 and 90 days.

First Day

• Establish a committee and launch investigations into state funds lost through corruption, fraud and money laundering
• Free all political prisoners
• Review cases of political prisoners and those arrested for personal gain

First week

• Propose to rejoin the Commonwealth of Nations
• Strengthen police patrols in Malé City
• All the appointees to the administration, state companies and independent commissions will publicise theirs and their spouses’ financial statements.
• Start investigations into abuse of state positions to commit illegal acts and neglecting of protection and security to people
• Start revising laws passed with the sole purpose of providing benefit or causing harm to a specific person or group
• Start restoring justice to all victims of murders, abductions, jailing, forced exile or property infringement
• Cut Goods and Services Tax on pads, tampons and sanitary napkins
• Stop giving permits for foreign fishing boats to fish in Maldivian waters
• Start renegotiating contracts and loans that would damage sovereignty and put the country into debt
• Cut fees for taxi boards
• Opening up closed harbour areas in Malé lagoon
• Start towing unused parked vehicles in Malé streets
• Restore the powers and responsibilities of local councils withheld by the president in the last five years
• Make expired national identity cards usable in seeking medical services
• Start a regular programme to reduce mosquitos, rats and bats across Maldives

First 30 days

• Start teaching Quran in mosques
• Install CCTV and speed cameras in bridge
• Start an environment and road safety police service
• Compile a police reform programme with input from police and public
• Build a platform to easily submit opinion and corruption complaints
• Start a zero-tolerance of corruption campaign
• Amend the Anti-Corruption Act to hold the people who accept bribes equally criminally liable as much as the one who gives the bribe
• A system will be set up to award housing to people who deserved flats but were deprived due to corrupt awarding practices. Those responsible will be held accountable
• Start making changes to the Judicial Service Commission and courts to reform the judiciary
• Start working on giving back the jobs of people unjustly sacked, and moving back people who were transferred from their jobs
• Expedite the cases in UN Working Group Enforced Involuntary Disappearances and the UN Human Rights Council
• Start weekend markets and recreational activities
• Pave way to hold town hall meetings of local councils upon request by a certain number of people
• Start widening the road of Fuvahmulah City School
• Close off designated roads in Malé on Friday morning and create a Jazeera (island) environment for children and families
• Create municipal inspectors
• Make therapeutic services free for disabled people under Aasandha scheme
• Open opportunities for persons with disabilities to apply for job vacancies and shape their life from these jobs
• Submit Child Rights Protection bill to parliament
• Gather information about persons with disabilities on all islands, recovering addicts and people in need of social welfare on all islands, and create a community based rehabilitation network
• Make a policy to operate 24-hour businesses
• Start the service of an SME bank for small and medium businesses
• Introduce Diamondback squid fishing for Maldives
• Slash import duty for diesel for fishing boats
• Hold a symposium for guesthouses
• Slash import duty for agricultural products
• Create a system to ensure that agricultural produce is safe for health
• Reduce the cost of domestic flying
• Create bus stops in Malé and Hulhumalé for Malé-Hulhumalé bus
• Designate loading and unloading areas in Malé roads
• Designate free parking space for airport employees
• Mark parking zones for motorbikes, cars, pickup and lorries in Malé
• Strengthen the Inland transport regulations
• Begin awarding undergraduate scholarship in the university of choice for top achievers in A’ Levels
• Introduce low-interest loans for people who wish to study abroad
• Revise the high-achievers scholarship scheme and make the scheme applicable for renowned universities in OECD countries
• Conduct training programs on environment protection for all elected and appointed state officials
• Conserve at least one island, one reef and one wetland in each atoll
• Start a tree planting initiative across Maldives
• Empower the Environment Protection Agency and start environment protection with the involvement of experts and the public
• Publish environmental studies online and make it accessible to the public
• Protect areas needing environment protection according to the law
• Initiate a Clean Maldives program
• Propose changes to Decentralisation Act
• Hand over flats completed flats across Maldives to those who deserve it
• Increase the budget to raise awareness about harmful products like tobacco, supari, energy drinks and sugary drinks
• Ensure that medicine and medical services for thalassaemia patients in all parts of the country are available from where they reside
• Conduct a symposium on local medicine and alternative medicine

First 60 Days

• Start utilising pension funds for Hajj pilgrimages.
• Start a campaign to spread road safety awareness and distribute 5,000 free helmets
• Submit Whistleblower Act to parliament
• Submit a bill to stop illicit enrichment
• Conduct a training program on anti-corruption and good governance for all elected and appointed state officials
• Introduce Juvenile Justice Act to parliament
• Revise and research amendments to the state expenditure through the pay commission
• Pave way for Majlis to call for a vote on issues petitioned by an appropriate number of people
• Make swimming at night possible in Hulhumalé beach and provide clean water in the area
• Re-create Addu City square and hoist the national flag in Koattey
• Make information about civil society organisations available in one place online
• Submit an NGO bill to parliament
• Formulate a policy to create a conducive environment for small and medium businesses.
• Revise Fisheries Act and make required amendments
• Pave way for individual farmers to access financial loans and credit schemes
• Create a travel masterplan for the entire Maldives
• Make undergraduate degrees tuition free
• Conduct an audit to determine resources needed to change schools back to single session
• Formulate a comprehensive plan to stop bullying and help victims of bullying
• Conduct an assessment to determine resources to strengthen special needs education
• Start a pilot program to provide free breakfast for school children
• Start running the outpost of Biccoca University
• Create a system to apply for flats without queueing up
• Conduct a housing need assessment through councils
• Facilitate medical check-ups through the school system
• Introduce emergency care and ambulance service to all atolls

First 90 days

• Make arrangements for women to pray in designated mosques
• Use renewable energy to air-condition mosques
• Legally mandate protection of heritage sites in all islands, create a list of the sites and look after heritage
• Find Kalhuvakaru mosque and put it back together
• Hang LED solar lights in the streets of Malé, Hulhumalé and Villingili
• Designate a sports councilor in all islands
• Allocate a budget of at least MVR500,000 for all national sports associations
• Conduct a sports audit of the entire Maldives
• Eliminate wage difference for men and women national sports teams and all national teams
• Hold a water sports convention
• Start “Fit and Healthy Eid” across Maldives
• Start building an olympic size swimming pool complex in Malé area
• Take measures to stop corruption in awarding quotas for expatriate workers and all expatriate matters
• Submit amendments to make independent commissions function independently
• Conduct an audit of all independent institutions and start making them efficient
• Conduct an audit of the entire judiciary and start making it efficient
• Give six months paid maternity leave for all state employed mothers. One month paid paternity leave for all state employed fathers.
• Conduct a nation-level training need assessment
• Designate a picnic area or island for islands without a picnic spot
• Make Raalhugandu, Artificial beach, Rasfannu, Usfasgandu, City Park and Lonuziyaaraiy relaxing places
• Start making Fuvahmulah City roads
• Create public toilets in Hulhumalé
• Make drug rehabilitation centers in three areas outside of Malé
• Gift a “baby box” – containing baby mattresses, essential baby items and a handbook on breastfeeding and health – to all newborn babies
• Make it easier for families to take children under state care into foster care
• Start work on providing Aasandha health insurance for Maldivians living in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia
• Assess the situation of Viyavathi, Kudakudhinge Hiyaa and Aman Hiyaa [children’s homes] and solve problems
• Assess the situation of Guraidhoo Center and solve the problems
• Found a home for abandoned elderly people in Guraidhoo center
• Conduct a civil society fair to exhibit the work of NGOs, recruit members, and present companies with proposals to fund projects
• Regularly review and change regulations that negatively affect businesses
• Submit Consumer Protection Act to parliament
• Submit Anti-Trust Act to Maldives
• Make fishing boat bank accounts and make the banking system accessible to fisherman. Bank loans and credit schemes will be accessible to fisherman
• Soft loans to install fish freezing systems for fishing boats
• Make the constructed ice plants operational and provide ice to fisherman
• Triple the budget for tourism promotion.
• Formulate a legal framework to lease farming land and lease land for animal farming
• Host International Donors Conference 
• Create an app to show the transport network to travel from one island to another
• Expand the ring road around Malé
• Analyse the traffic flow of Malé streets and open up roads that need to be re-opened
• Use Malé- Hulhumalé ferry terminal for Hulhulé-Malé ferry
• Introduce mini-bus service in Malé
• Draft and submit a bill to strengthen the Maldives Qualification Authority and improve higher education
• Conduct a symposium to revise the school curriculum
• Publicise how green tax is taken and how green tax revenue is being used
• Start a national campaign to reduce plastic bags and plastic bottles
• Shoreline protection for Fuvahmulah
• Resume advocacy in COP24 and grab the world’s attention
• Make island councils responsible for managing local tourism, managing the island’s official website and marketing the island
• Carry out an audit of jails
• Carry out an audit of government offices, state companies to fix loopholes for corruption and make these offices efficent
• Create a national think tank to improve productivity by studying medicine, social issues, economy, environment and technology
• Create an independent youth council to advise and monitor youth policies and initiatives
• Join all health facilities within a single network
• Make arrangements for exercising in public spaces
• Create a national mental health institute and ensure Aasandha insurance coverage for mental illnesses
• Strengthen the policies of Food and Drug Authority and monitor pharmaceuticals imported to Maldives
• Enforce mental health national policy and strategic plan
• Make changes to the system to ease the service queue in IGMH
• Make a treatment system for diabetic patients living in atolls
• Install Gene Xpert Machines in two regions of Maldives to treat and eradicate Tuberculosis
• Introduce HPV vaccines for girls aged 9-13
• Ensure that the tap water supplied by the water company is safe for drinking
• Reduce the cost of electricity