Comment: FDI and strategic security concerns
06 Feb 2013, 12:37 PM
N SathiyaMoorthy
Blackstone Group, the US-based MNC with multifarious investment interests across the world, has bought majority shares in the only two Maldivian air-taxi companies, together owning a fleet of close to 50 sea-planes, for an undisclosed sum.
Coming within weeks of the government throwing out Indian infrastructure group GMR from the airport construction-concession contract, questions need to be answered on issues relating to FDI and strategic security considerations.
The government can take pride that FDI has not dried up after the ‘GMR row’. Nor have perceptions of political instability in the country upset foreign investors into staying away. Together, they could ease pressures on future governments, too, in an election year, and presidential aspirants can now promise the moon both to the foreign investor and to their own local population.
Yes, larger issues, settled decades ago, may need to be re-addressed if the ‘GMR kind’ of problem does not end up showing up without notice on a later date.
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