A Malaysian company has been awarded the contract to build new council buildings in 55 islands of the Maldives.

At the signing ceremony held today for this contract, Dr. Fathimath Muna, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Cities, Local Government and Public Works, signed on behalf of the ministry. Ali Shareef, Managing Director of Hextar Global, signed on behalf of the contractor.

The Local Government Ministry said that under the project signed today, the construction of 55 council buildings will begin, and they hope that the councils will benefit from these facilities within the coming year.

Although the agreement was signed, the ministry has not disclosed which islands will get new council buildings, nor the details of the cost and the contracted price for the work.

In last year's Republic Day ceremony, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu announced that under his pledge, work would begin on building new council buildings for 100 islands.

"We are now running two projects. Under the Chinese government's grant aid, we will build council buildings for 50 islands next year [2025]. The other project is for another 50 islands under contractor finance, to be paid by the government according to the usual procedure. So we will start building council buildings for a total of 100 islands next year [2025]," the President said at that ceremony.

At that ceremony, the President also pledged to complete the construction of these buildings within this term.