This results from the Maldives' strategic geographic positioning near crucial sea routes essential for China's energy provisions.
Agriculture and manufacturing play a minor role in the economy, constrained by the limited availability of cultivable land and shortage of domestic labour.
Limitations on potable water and arable land, plus the added difficulty of congestion are some of the problems faced by households in Malé.
Development of the infrastructure in the Maldives is mainly dependent on the tourism industry and its complementary tertiary sectors, transport, distribution, real estate, construction, and government.
This is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Maldives at market prices estimated [1] by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of rufiyaa.
This pattern is not confined solely to small island nations in the Indian Ocean, like the Maldives and Sri Lanka, but extends to the wider Indo-Pacific region, encompassing countries with sizable and advanced economies as well.
[22] Beginning in the 1990s, the Port of Male received over £10 million in loans from the Asian Development Bank designated for infrastructure upgraded.
[26] In April 1987, high tides swept over the Maldives, inundating much of Malé and nearby islands which prompted Maldivian authorities to take global climatic changes seriously.
An INQUA research in 2003 found that actual sea levels in the Maldives had dropped in the 1970s and forecasts little change in the next century.
[29] While electricity in the Maldives has historically come entirely from diesel generators, solar power has been increasingly adopted to avoid high fuel costs.
The resort on Dhiddhoofinolhu claims to have the world's largest oceanic floating solar plant, with 678 kW enough to supply peak demand.
[30] The country's Environment Ministry has deployed solar–battery–diesel hybrid systems across the outer islands to reduce subsidies for imported diesel and promote low-carbon energy independence.
[31] Maldives achieved their Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people living under the poverty line to 1% as of 2011.
[33] In islands far from the capital, there tends to be lack of production, inadequate use of fishery resources, low value chain development and insufficient credit for small-scale producers and entrepreneurs.