Yameen wins Asia HRD lifetime achievement award

President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom has been conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 Asia Human Resources Development Awards.

Yameen was recognised for his “outstanding contributions towards nation-building and people development, and for the strength and support extended to professionals in the HRD field,” the president’s office said.

“The Lifetime Achievement Award is conferred on individuals who have either promoted the cause of learning or pioneered initiatives that have impacted people in a significant manner.”

Mohamed Fahmy Hassan, the Maldivian ambassador to Malaysia, accepted the award on behalf of the president at a ceremony held Tuesday night in Putrajaya. Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, was the guest of honour at the gala dinner.

The award was part of the Asia Recruitment Awards produced by the ‘Human Resources’ magazine focused on the Southeast Asia region.

In his acceptance speech delivered via video link at the award ceremony, Yameen spoke about his administration’s “lofty vision” of transforming the economy despite the constraints of a sparse and geographically dispersed population and limited natural resources.

“We are moving towards a knowledge-based economy, where growth depends on the quantity, quality and accessibility to information; where there is increasingly greater reliance on intellectual capabilities than on depleting and stagnating natural resources,” he said.

“A vision of a more prosperous and harmonious Maldives, with greater international leverage; a country where its people are empowered to live by their own means, as independent, proud and self-sufficient citizens.”

MP Imthiyaz Fahmy, the spokesman of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, said about the award: “President Yameen is trying to make a mountain out of mole to show off to grassroots and blind followers. There is only one follower in this award’s Twitter handle. No world leader applies to awards on their own like this.”

In April last year, Yameen was also conferred the first-ever “Dr Kalam Puraskar for Excellence in Governance” by the Dale View Group, an umbrella group that runs health schools and advocates for the rights of addicts, women and transgender people in the Indian state of Kerala.

“The Kamal award was fake, the real one award is given by the Tamil Nadu government,” Imthiyaz said.

“But the one was given was fake. The Lovely International award was after a group of people from the institution came to the Maldives and agreed to work on an anti-terror agreement.”