President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has said that the service of sending medicines and medical supplies to atolls via drones will be launched this year.

In his presidential address at the opening of the Parliament this morning, the President said the regulatory work for the introduction of the drone delivery system has been initiated and the first round of test flights has been successfully completed on January 19, 2024.

"The drone regulation work will be completed before starting the service on a commercial basis. In conjunction with this drone delivery system, arrangements will be made to provide medicines and medical consumables to the atolls through drones within this year," he said.

The President said that the expansion of transportation is one of the top priorities for strengthening the Maldives' economy.

"In addition to completing the construction of domestic airports under construction, we will start work on two new airports this year. Recently, the Cabinet decided to start the state-of-the-art safest helicopter service in the Maldives," he said.

The President said that the government has already started the process of preparing a national register containing information about taxi service providers in the Maldives. He added that taxi services will be brought up to standard in Maldives.

The President said that Maldives' national airline Maldivian will expand its services and bring in aircraft this year to fly to many destinations around the world.