Visiting Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed yesterday declared that he wants to make Maldives a corrupt free, transparent, democratic nation."

He stressed that under his rule he will not tolerate bribery or corruption and no one should think that he or she should give anything to any official to get things done.

"It is a more free and fair Maldives now," he told the Sri Lankan business community in Colombo.

President Nasheed, who is on a three-day official visit to Sri Lanka, pledged to push ahead with the proposed reforms in the Maldives, whatever the obstacles stand in his way

Asked how he would rid a country which was teeming with corruption and nepotism for nearly 30 years under then President Gayoom who ruled with an iron fist, he replied, "I admit that there has been large scale corruption in the country in the past and nepotism at his best, but if I embark on reforms with a revengeful mind, throwing people behind bars and taking action against them, it will not remedy the ills. Then, I will not be able to go ahead with the proposed reforms and bring prosperity to the country."

"If I act in such a manner, the country will go back by another two to three years and the whole objective of taking the nation forward will be lost", he pointed out.

"My philosophy is to have a stern rule where everyone will get a fair share and in such an administration no one would try to rock the boat," he said.

Nasheed emphasized the need to increase the volume of trade and investment between the two countries and invited the Sri Lankan business community to take over some of the government owned business enterprises in the Maldives which he termed as ‘white elephants’ and added that the investors could fully own these enterprises.

"There is a lot of scope for Sri Lankan investors in the Maldivian archipelago in different spheres mainly in tourism, transport and agribusiness", he said.

There are about 12 airports in the Maldives, both domestic and international and the government welcomes Sri Lankan entrepreneurs to invest and develop them where they will enjoy 100% ownership and the Maldivian government will benefited by way of taxes, he noted.

Nasheed said that already the Galle Face Group has invested in a hotel and started developing the Kadedhoo airport in the Huvadhoo Attol in the South of the archipelago and added that Sri Lankan companies own 10% of the total number of bed capacity in the hotels in the Madives.

Nasheed, no stranger to Sri Lanka having spent about three years in the country after launching the Maldivian Democratic Party’s campaign for a free and fair Maldives sans corruption with his earstwhile comrade Mohamed latheef and a group of supporters.

He publicly thanked the Sri Lankan government, many institutions, the media and people of Sri Lanka for all the assistance and encouragement they received to achieve the party’s objective of seeking a mandate to introduce much needed reforms to the country

President Nasheed addressed the members of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka followed by the members of Chamber of Commerce of Ceylon and Sri Lanka –Maldives Bilateral Business Council.

The key members of all three institutions expressed optimism that they will make full use of the opportunity provided by the Maldivian government for investment and trade.