In this meeting, the committee met with the Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Resources and ministry’s official regarding the letter sent by Secretariat of the South Atoll Hoan’dedhdhoo Council regarding the revision of the rent of the land leased to Horizon Fisheries Private Limited as a part of the project to develop Skipjack Tuna industry.

In this regard, the minister stated that as per the agreement, the land rent must be revised every five years and the rent had to be revised in 2023, but it was not revised as they haven’t reached an agreement about the concerns of the Council. According to the existing agreement, rent of the land is 15 Laari per square foot, however, the council proposed to change it to a range of 20 to 60 Laari per month. The minister shared that Horizon Fisheries Limited had not yet offered a rent rate and it would not be feasible for a facility that had not been in operation to go along with rent rates proposed by the Council. Till the rent is revised again, the rent amount for 2023 and 2024 is deposited to the Council’s account at the rate of 15 Laari per sq ft. The Minister noted that Horizon Fisheries Limited had made huge investments in the establishment of a cold storage facility in Hoan’dedhdhoo and discussions were already underway on the issue of delay in bringing it into operation and only benefit from the facility right now is the rent income. Although the Hoan’dedhdhoo Cold Storage Facility has not been in operation, other projects are already initiated for the development of the fishing industry in the south region. In this regard, the minister highlighted that the project in Gd. Thinadhoo will be completed by next year and project in Gdh. Fiyori would be completed by the end of 2026.