President Mohamed Nasheed has opened Maldives Islamic Bank today.

Maldives Islamic Bank is a joint venture between the government of the Maldives and the Islamic Corporation Development (ICD), the private sector development arm of Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

The President was also joined by the Chairman of the Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB) and CEO of ICD Khaled Al-Aboodi to unveil MIB.

Speaking at the ceremony this morning, President Nasheed said the opening on Islamic bank in the Maldives provided an opportunity to shape the country’s development and business practices according to Islamic principles.

He said the opening of MIB was the beginning of conducting business transactions with transparency and integrity in accordance with Islamic principles and clean commercial activities of unscrupulous practices.

President Nasheed said, although the process of setting up an Islamic bank was underway when his administration came to the government, the process was unavoidably halted due to reluctance to allow foreign investments and foreign companies into the Maldives.

However, he said the participation of local business people who favoured an open economy in the government following the change in the government and introduction of democracy was the catalyst for expediting the process, leading to successful inauguration of MIB today.

The President also noted that establishment of MIB would be an important step towards easing dollar shortage.

He said the dollar shortage was created due to people’s unwillingness to deposit their dollar and foreign currency because of the lower return they receive on their deposits in Maldivian banks.

MIB would be a commercial establishment that would provide higher returns to dollar deposits, he stated further. He added that MIB would not be constrained by prevailing rates or the rate set by the central bank in giving return for foreign currency deposits with the bank.

In his opening remarks, President also noted that the opening of MIB appropriately coincide with the anniversary of the Maldives embracing Islam over 800 years ago.