Mohammed Ali Jannah is a special adviser to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. … [+]
Joseph Hammond
Perhaps no country has demonstrated labor market resilience more than the Maldives: In just one generation, the South Asian nation’s lagoon has been transformed from a fishing boat haven to a five-star resort destination, a testament to the strength and adaptability of its workforce.
“While the Maldives’ experience may not seem similar, how the labour market is changing and where we are heading is a microcosm of the future of work,” he said.
“You’ll see these changes everywhere, it’s just that it’s happened first in this small country,” said Mohamed Ali Jana, perhaps the Maldives’ most internationally recognised business leader and recently appointed principal adviser to Maldivian President Mohamed Muizz on trade and investment.
The Maldives consists of 1,192 tropical islands spread across 26 atolls. It has a population of just over 500,000, of which about 150,000 live in the populous capital city of Male, which most visitors only get a brief glimpse of upon arriving at the international airport.
Jana has been a key figure in the transformation of the Maldives labour market and has directly driven its dramatic growth. Currently, he is a leading figure in the Maldives construction industry and serves as the President of the Maldives Employers Federation. Having built dozens of hotels and resorts across the country, he is also a co-owner of the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, a testament to his significant contribution to the development of the country’s labour market.
Today, workers from all over the world come to the Maldives to understand the future of jobs in the hospitality industry.
“This is a first-class tourist destination, and that’s what draws people,” Jana said. “The difference in running a business and resort here is the logistics. When a resort is 250 miles from the nearest international airport, everything has to be transported by boat or seaplane.”
The country’s resilience, conservation and sustainability are lessons for the world. It’s not only a key waypoint for the growth of future hospitality executives for Marriott and other global chains, but also for tourists, a quarter of whom are repeat visitors.
But until recently, opportunities in the country were very limited, so in the early 1980s, Jana did what any ambitious Maldivian would do: she went abroad.
An aerial view of the Hilton Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives. The Maldives is a cutting edge … [+]
“There were very few good high schools in the Maldives at that time so like many others, I went to university in Sri Lanka and then the Philippines,” he said.
The fate of the Maldives over the past few decades offers important clues about the future of jobs for countries hoping to reverse the “brain drain” and retain their most talented workers – a key issue in the context of the transformation of the Maldives’ labour market.
Today, luxury resorts like the Waldorf Astoria charge as much as $4,000 a night, and Arab royals regularly rent out private islands for $100,000 a night. But the Maldives and its job market have a long way to go.
The first international resorts opened in the 1970s and 1980s but were crude by today’s standards, and after working in a family-run cement block manufacturing factory in Male, Jana realised that the future of the Maldivian economy lay in remote atolls, where resorts were little more than sand castles at the time.
“They were very basic two- or three-star resorts and often the walls needed repair because they were made from sea sand and coral. I saw an opportunity,” Jana said.
At that time, one of the few ways to stay in touch with employees and family overseas was by mail. As there were no proper Yellow Pages in the Maldives, he asked a friend in Singapore to mail him a copy of the Yellow Pages. When it finally arrived, he pored over the pages and found an Italian company that sold stone repair products.
Mohamed Jana, founder of Hotel and Resort Construction in the Maldives, smiles in his office. … [+]
It was just a quick step from repairing to building resorts. Jana has built resorts all over the Maldives and even abroad. His company was the first Maldivian company to build a resort abroad; Qatar’s iconic Banana Island Resort is one of the most famous hotels in the Middle East. Jana quickly realized what others around the world had also noticed: if they built resorts sustainably and kept them repaired, they would last in the Maldives, where tropical storms are common. This transition from repairing to building marked a major shift for both Jana’s business goals and the Maldivian labor market.
“Some developers cut down trees and use machinery to build. We take a completely different approach – an artisanal approach. Where others use mechanical earthmoving equipment, we are environmentally friendly and use handcarts. It’s not easy. Sustainability is at the core of our approach, and always has been. We will not destroy the natural environment just to build a resort.” With resorts around the world making similar plans, the future of jobs for these workers remains bright.
Similarly, the Maldives labour market has had an early focus on sustainability, with the country’s efforts to balance economic growth and environmental protection at the heart of its development – a key element in the transformation of the country’s labour market.
Jana’s Hotel & Resort Construction group manages much of its talent in-house, which he sees as potentially part of a larger global trend for the future of work: everyone from oceanographers to engineers, construction managers and shipbuilders working in-house.
Immigration is a test issue for many democracies, and this is no different in the Maldives.
This small Islamic democracy currently boasts one of the highest per capita incomes in Asia, a testament to the abundance of employment opportunities in the country. This economic prosperity is a key driver of the development of the Maldives’ labour market.
Maldives labour laws once required that local workers make up 55% of the workforce. This percentage has decreased over the years, and there is growing pressure to lower the requirement to 30%.
On this year’s International Workers’ Day, Maldives President Mohamed Muizz said his administration intends to further amend the country’s labour laws to expand employment protections in some sectors and liberalize job creation in others.
The president pledged “efforts to increase employment opportunities for local workers by allocating 22 specializations exclusively to local employees,” and highlighted international job and investment opportunities in new ventures, including the Maldives International Financial Services Authority. Established in January this year, the new banking and financial center is intended to “drive the development of a wide range of offshore and onshore financial services,” he said.
Dubai’s International Free Zones Authority (IFZA) recently signed an agreement with the Maldives to develop a unique economic and financial services zone on the Maldives’ Fonadhoo island and plans to build a new economic gateway for the Maldives in Ihavandhippolhu atoll. “These additional sectors will create a lot of opportunities for the Maldives,” Jana said.
In other words, for those lucky enough to work in the financial and services industry, the Maldives will transform from a dream tourist destination into a dream workplace.
In addition to his role as Principal Adviser on Trade and Investment to the President of the Maldives, Jana is also a Special Adviser to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and serves as Country Chair of the Commonwealth’s official business and trade network, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), many of whose member states are small island states who are keen to heed his advice and follow the Maldives’ path from sandy shores to prosperity.
To advance intra-Commonwealth business relations in the region, CWEIC has opened a Hub office in Male to provide a central location for Commonwealth companies interested in exploring investment, trade and business opportunities in the Maldives. Jana will serve as Chairman of the Hub and lead efforts to strengthen business and investment relations between the Maldives and the other 55 member states of the Commonwealth.
“This has the potential to be a game changer for the Maldives, creating new job opportunities for locals and expats and expanding opportunities in the financial services sector,” he said.
