How unfortunate it is to see that political
establishments are hitting hard at the business of corporate-giants. You get a
contract sponsored by sovereign Govt. of the country and later the apex court
concerned simply terminates it regardless of the huge loss the private
enterprises involved go through with.
It seems that not only in India but
globally internal politics of respective nation is encroaching upon the
territory of its global economic relations which are supposed to be dealt with
independently. Economic relations must never get tainted by the petty interests
of politics, opposite of which just happened in Maldives.
The
earlier Govt in Maldives in the president-ship of Naseed enters into a
concession agreement with GMR-MAHB to develop the Male International Airport.
After a coup d’état, the new Govt. formed in the stewardship of Waheed annuls
the same contract calling it illegal and this $500 million airport-deal simply
goes into vain. The similar incident has happened in India as well when 2G-spectrum allocations had been negated by Supreme Court jeopardizing the interests of corporate including foreign companies such as Telenor
, Sistema, Etislat etc.
In June
2010, the Maldives government, the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) and
GMR-MAHB Consortium signed a tripartite concession agreement to develop and run
the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport at Malé, the capital of the island
nation. According to this agreement GMR group levied Airport Development Charge
on departing passengers, the revenues earned through this process went to the
Maldives Govt. Later this practice was found illegal by a local court. Seeing
that, the then president Nasheed allowed the GMR to deduct the amount of ADC
from the overall revenues it used to share with the Govt. Bone of contention
appeared when the changed Govt. of Waheed found out that it owed GMR about $3.5
million.
In
the guise of xenophobia he contended to expropriate the tender from GMR and won
the case in Singapore Court. It is notable that GMR-MAHB consortium has made
the largest-ever FDI investment in Maldives and Male airport is a top growing
airport in the region. Given these facts and that IFC, a financial body of
World Bank was involved in the bidding process through which GMR had won the
tender; it is wondrous how the new Govt. in Maldives called it an unfair
agreement. The whole incident clearly manifests the anti-Indian sentiment
spread in the neighboring island.
On one
hand, GMR-Maldives spat is technically a win-win situation for the Maldives and
on the other; it brings complex repercussions for India. Strategically Maldives
is an important neighbor archipelago for the country. Given the geographical
position of Maldives and its recent brew with India, China with all its might
would try to make a footing in this region to counter balance India. Hence it
is a challenge for Indian Govt. to keep Maldives in good humor while achieving justice
for its company. Highly likely it is that GMR will appeal in International
Trade Court against the Singapore court verdict which would further stress diplomatic machinery’s new
mission to handle Male. The test is not actually for GMR but for Indian Govt.
as to how it would help this b’lore based enterprise to incur its losses at the
same time keeping the strategic relationship with the island intact.
g8t yar...keep it up
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