July 23rd, 2021
Honorary Consulate-General of The Maldives 🇲🇻
Location: Kowloon Centre, Suite 201-5, 29-39 Ashley Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui
Leading up to the Maldives visit, we were excited to be visiting our first small island nation, especially given its notable specialization in tourism, which we expected to be a large talking point. Funnily enough, leaving the second floor elevators, we found that the Honorary Maldivian Consulate was actually located in a travel agency, in a room at the back.
Sitting down, we were pleasantly surprised by the two bottles of Bonaqua that had been laid on the table waiting for us, and we appreciated the hospitality. After a few short moments, we were introduced to Mr. Vijay Harilela, Honorary Vice Consul of The Maldives. Speaking to him about his background, we learned the Harilela family is a very prominent family in HK with deep roots throughout the city. In fact, Mr. Harilela’s uncle is the Honorary Consul of Niger. We also learned that while his father is the Honorary Consul, he has largely taken up most of the duties due to his father’s age.
Following introductions, we learned that The Maldives was surprisingly one of the first nations to establish an Honorary Consulate in Hong Kong, with the mission beginning in 1993. As we expected, The Maldivian Consulate’s largest focus is increasing tourism from Hong Kong, especially following the large dip during Covid-19. Prior to the pandemic, the Maldivian Consulate has done lots of work in attaining this goal, signing an air service agreement that allows direct flights, and doing heavy advertising throughout Hong Kong. However, due to the pandemic, the Maldivian economy has been devastated, given the reliance on tourism and inability to develop large manufacturing. In fact, the Maldives’ focus on tourism is so great that they were one of the first countries to open their borders despite COVID-19 in August 2020.
Unfortunately, this has also presented challenges, as the densely populated nature of the islands makes transmission of COVID-19 easy. Despite this, Mr. Harilela made it clear that there was still a greater threat to the country’s future: the increasing effects of climate change. He told us that the highest point on the Maldives is only 5 meters above sea level, ironically named Mount Villingili. As such, the rising sea levels have posed a challenge to the islands, with several already being swept under the waves. Given the situation, both the Maldivian Consulate and government have stressed clean energy usage, and heavily encourage other nations to abide by the Paris Agreement.
Finally, we learned the Maldivian population in Hong Kong is the smallest we’ve encountered, Mr. Harilela estimates that only 1-2 Maldivians currently reside in Hong Kong. In the future, the Maldives is also seeking to further diversify, and develop a technological and outsourcing center.
We’d like to thank Mr. Harilela and his staff for their hospitality, and we encourage you all to commit to sustainable practices so in the future we can still enjoy the beautiful Maldives!