Herethere’s bid has been cancelled: Gayyoom’s new political game!!!

It hasn’t been officially released to the media, but the bids for Herethere Resort have been cancelled. MTDC demanded fifteen million Us Dollars (interest free) advance from the person who won the bid. The interest of 15 million dollars for 15 years would be more than ten million dollars. This is the dictator’s way of siphoning money for his upcoming election. When the winner of the bid disagreed about the legitimacy of this demand, MTDC promptly cancelled the bid.
Herethere currently has occupancy of less than 25 percent. It is estimated that the occupancy of Herethere would fall to 20 percent over the next four months. While most of the other resorts are full year-round, Herethere is being neglected and managed by a government-owned public company that seems to want to destroy Herethere.
The government brings one bureaucratic obstacle after another in to the Herethere project. First it was the refusal to disjoin Hulhudhoo and Herethere due to environmental. Now it is the refusal of the government to handover the management of the resort to capable private bidders. This is the only way to develop the resort. As long as MTDC holds onto the management of Herethere the resort would continue to decline, just as resorts such as Bandos and Kurumba declined when the government managed those resorts some decades ago.
The people of Addu Atoll have waited patiently for over two decades to taste the rewards of tourism in their atoll. Now that it is so close, Gayyoom’s regime is continuing to cerate unnecessary bureaucracy and obstacle to the successful operation of Herethere. This is a regime that hates the people of Addu and we should all join forces to say “No” to Gayyoom and his dictatorial cronies.
We demand that Gayyoom and his political and private-sector cronies give back Herethere to us – the rightful owners of the island.