Foreign investors can either register a business as a FDI or opt to submit proposal under the unsolicited proposal’s policy.
Step 1: Seeking Approval for the Foreign Investment Proposal
Investors can submit the required documents to fiu@trade.gov.mv via email. Once the application is reviewed, an approval letter will be issued. Details of the process, along with the required documents can be viewed at the Business Portal.
Investors can then submit the letter of award of the project (if any) along with the application form and share the details of the project such as project value, duration of the project for our review.
Step 2: Register the business
Once the approval is issued, the investor will receive an approval letter, after which they are required to submit the relevant documents to re-register their business.
Step 3: Signing the foreign investment agreement
Investors will be required to pay the administrative fee of USD 5000 and enter into Foreign Investment Agreement with the Ministry of Economic Development.
Attached are some of the documents that potential investors can refer to:
- FI application form
- FDI policy 2020
- Financial Credibility letter template
- Doing Business Guide 2019 (latest published)
- To submit proposal under the unsolicited proposal’s policy please use the Unsolicited Proposal Policy and the application form.
To submit a proposal under the unsolicited proposals policy, potential investors are required to submit the following documents to the Ministry of Economic Development.
- USP application form
- Financial Credibility letter
- Constitutional documents of the proponent (Registration certificate, Articles of Association, Memorandum of Association)
- Latest audited financial accounts
- If the proposed project is for social housing, and the form of finance is through a bank, a term sheet duly executed by a financial institution licensed by the central bank of the respective jurisdiction.
- Further details are available at https://business.egov.mv/Home/Investments
Applications and proposals can be emailed to proposals@trade.gov.mv More details can be found at https://business.egov.mv/Home/Investments. Additionally, please find below website links to relevant authorities that can be useful for the investors.
- Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA): https://mira.gov.mv/Default_Eng.aspx
- Maldives Customs Service: https://www.customs.gov.mv/
- Maldives Immigration: https://immigration.gov.mv/business-2/