Mohamed Saiman
Managing Director of Housing Development Corporation (HDC)
Real Estate & Construction / Maldives
“More than a smart city, Hulhumalé will be the best place to live in the Maldives”
Little more than a faint wisp of land in the mid 1990s, today Hulhumalé, located north of the capital and beside the international airport, is the site of the most ambitious land reclamation project in the Maldives. Since breaking ground in 1997, an astounding 391.6 hectares of land has been reclaimed alongside the original 9.9-hectare atoll in the Hulhulé-Farukolhufushi region and the local population has blossomed to over 30,000 people, prompting the opening of the island’s first supermarket in March. The Housing Development Corporation is in charge of overseeing the construction of Hulhumalé and has laid out a comprehensive set of physical and social infrastructure blueprints that Managing Director Mohamed Saiman believes will transform the island into the country’s first smart city, which, he says, is going to become “the best place to live in the Maldives.”
What is the ethos supporting Hulhumalé’s smart city development?
President Yameen came to power with the vision of developing Hulhumalé into a modern smart city that would assist in decongesting the capital by providing job opportunities and the prerequisite amenities and infrastructure to incite voluntary migration, specifically targeting the country’s future generations. Indeed, Hulhumalé is designed to become a young city, one that will encourage creative entrepreneurship from the youth of our nation. This is why we have dubbed Hulhumalé the “Youth City”: a modern commercial and cultural capital complete with a forthcoming fiber optic network, which will in turn nurture the Gigabit economy by providing an ICT backbone to lure in tech companies. This planned IT Park was actually inspired by the Internet City in Dubai.
Why should Maldivian youth migrate to Hulhumalé?
More than a smart city, Hulhumalé will be the best place to live in the Maldives. Younger generations will come to be a part of the Maldives’ contribution to the global tech scene, while multinational corporations will find a stable footing to hire fresh talent while being close to the political capital. There will also be an international financial center and knowledge hub. Last but not least, Hulhumalé will, in true Maldivian spirit, be a showcase for some of the world’s most luxurious resorts, and eventually the country’s new anchor for the tourism industry.
How is Hulhumalé planning to anchor a foothold in tourism?
Hulhumalé will be home to a cruise ship terminal capable of handling up to 4,000 passengers at any given time; even the world’s largest cruise ships can be served here. A yacht marina is also part of our blueprints, which will include 300 berthing facilities located along an inner-reef. The good news is that we have already secured funding for constructing shore protection and other mandatory infrastructure. Furthermore, in addition to these maritime facilities, there will be a 24.1-hectare zone dedicated to tourism that will be on a separate island from the mainland. For this project, we drew inspiration from Singapore’s Sentosa Island. Indeed, tourism employment will be incredibly crucial to the life of Hulhumalé: the tourism island alone could create up to 12,000 jobs, with an additional 7,000 jobs expected to be offered by the yacht marina and cruise terminal.
How would investors benefit from a stake in Hulhumalé?
When completed, Hulhumalé will have a population capacity of 240,000. Investment opportunities align with our plans to build hotels, shopping malls, office towers and more. Some zones will benefit from 10-year tax holidays with a possibility of extension.
