President: All our efforts are aimed at making Maldives fully developed by 2040

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu states that all of the efforts his administration are guided by the vision to transform the Maldives into a fully developed nation by 2040.

He made the remark during his address at the ceremony on Monday morning to launch PayPal services in the Maldives.

In his speech, President Muizzu said he wants young Maldivian pioneers to look at the achievement not as the destination, but as “one of the pearls on the ocean, connecting us to our broader national ambitions.”

He said that PayPal was the strategic infrastructure for a much larger blueprint.

“All of our efforts are guided by Vision 2040, our roadmap to transform the Maldives into a fully developed, high-income nation,” he said.

President Muizzu said that the Maldives cannot achieve this goal by relying on traditional sectors alone.

“True diversification requires us to build entirely new pillars of growth from within, and we have established a clear, mandatory milestone to guide this journey: by the year 2030, our digital economy must contribute at least 15 percent to our national GDP,” he said.

President Muizzu said that this was the very reason why his administration secured its agreement with Google to bring the world-renowned Dhivaru international submarine cable project to the Maldives.

“By introducing world-class connectivity alongside trusted global brands like Google and PayPal, we are signaling to international markets that the Maldives is a sophisticated, predictable frontier for global capital,” he said.

President Muizzu said that for centuries, Maldivian ancestors navigated great oceans, linked distant civilizations, and built a proud maritime heritage that is forever woven into Maldives’ national identity.

“Today, we continue that exact same legacy in a modern way. We are no longer confined by our geography, and our physical isolation will never again define our economic limits,” he said. “For centuries, our ancestors connected the Maldives to the world through the sea. Today, we connect our people to the world through the digital economy.”

President Muizzu had announced his vision to transform the Maldives into a fully developed nation by 2040 during his address at the UN General Assembly in 2024.

He said that though a challenging goal, it is not impossible as long as there’s a concrete plan. He said that his administration was implementing key measures towards achieving the goal.