Mohamed Ali Janah: Maldives business leader, presidential advisor on the Future Of Work

By Joseph Hammond

Perhaps no country has demonstrated the resilience of its labor market like the Maldives. In a single generation, this South Asian nation’s lagoons went from floating fishing boats to hosting five-star resorts — a testament to the strength and adaptability of its workforce.

“The experience of the Maldives might seem dissimilar, but how the labor market has transformed and where we are going is a microcosm of the future of work,” said

Mohamed Ali Janah, perhaps the Maldives’ most internationally recognized business leader, and recently appointed principal advisor to Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu on trade and investment. “We will see these changes everywhere. Just they happened here first in this small country.”

The Maldives is home to 1,192 tropical islands spread across 26 atolls. The population is just over half a million, with some 150,000 of whom live in Malé, the populated capital that most visitors see only briefly on arrival at its international airport.

Janah is a key figure in the transformation of the Maldives’ labor market, having driven the dramatic rise first-hand. Today, he holds the position of the Maldives’ leading construction magnate and is the head of the Maldives Federation of Employers. Having built dozens of hotels and resorts across the country, he is also a part-owner of the Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives, a testament to his significant contributions to the country’s labor market evolution.

Today, workers come to the Maldives from around the world to understand the future of work in the hospitality industry.

“We are a first-tier destination and that’s what draws people here,” Janah said. “And what makes running a business or a resort here different is the logistics. If your resort is 250 miles from the nearest international airport, everything needs to come via boat or seaplane.

This country’s resilience, conservation, and sustainability offer global lessons. It’s not just an important stop in the growth of future hospitality executives from Marriott or other worldwide chains – it’s the same for tourists, a quarter of which are repeat visitors.

Yet not long ago the country’s opportunities were quite limited. In the early 1980s, Janah did what any ambitious Maldivian would do — he went abroad.

“In those days, there were few good high schools in the Maldives so, as many did, I went to Sri Lanka and later the Philippines for university,” he said.

The Maldives’ fortunes over the past few decades offer important clues regarding the future of work for countries that want to reverse the “brain drain” and retain their most talented workers domestically. This is a significant issue in the context of the Maldives’ labor market transformation.

Today, some elite resorts, like the Waldorf Astoria, charge as much as $4,000 a night, and Arabian royals regularly rent out private islands for $100,000 a night. However, the road was a long one for the Maldives and its labor market.

The first international resorts opened in the 1970s and 1980s, but they were crude affairs by the standards of today. After dabbling in the family cement block-making factory in Malé, Janah realized the future the of the Maldives’ economy was in its remote atolls where resorts were then little more than castles in the sand.

“They were very basic two or three-star resorts that often needed repairs to the walls as they were made from sea sand and coral, and I saw that as an opportunity,” Janah said.

Back then, one of the few ways to keep in touch with employees or loved ones in other countries was by mail. He asked a friend in Singapore to mail him a copy of the Yellow Pages as a suitable copy in the Maldives was not available. When it finally arrived, he poured over its pages before finding an Italian company with a masonry repair product.

It was a short step from repairing resorts to building them, and Janah has done that all over the Maldives – and even abroad – with his company becoming the first Maldivian business to build a resort overseas, the iconic Banana Island Resort in Qatar is one of the best known hotels in the Middle East. Janah quickly grasped what others were also realizing around the world: if you build a resort sustainably and keep up on repairs, facilities can last even in the Maldives where tropical storms can be frequent. This transition from repair to construction marked a significant shift both for Janah’s business ambitions and the Maldives’ labor market.

“Some developers knock down trees and build using machinery. We have an entirely different approach: a craftsman-intense approach. Where others are using mechanical earth movers we are being gentle with the environment, using handcarts. It doesn’t come easy. Sustainability is at the core of our approach and always has been. You don’t destroy the natural surroundings just to build a resort.” The future of work for such workers will remain bright as resorts around the world are making similar plans.

Similarly, the Maldives labor market came to place an early premium on sustainability – making the country’s commitment to maintaining a balance between economic growth and environmental conservation central to their development. This has been a key factor in the country’s labor market transformation.

Janah’s group of companies, Hotels and Resort Construction, has brought much its human resources in-house, and he sees this as a potential part of a larger global trend in the future of work. Everything from oceanographers to engineers to construction managers to boat-builders work in-house.

Immigration is a touchstone issue for many democracies, and this is also true in the Maldives.

The small Muslim democracy now boasts some of the highest earnings per capita in Asia, a testament to the wealth of job opportunities available in the country. This economic prosperity is a key factor in the evolution of the Maldives’ labor market.

At one point in the history of the Maldives labor laws ensured that local workers made up 55% of the staff. This percentage has been reduced over the years and there is growing pressure to move the requirement down to 30%.

This International Labor Day, the President of the Maldives, Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, stated that his administration intended to amend the country’s labor laws further, extending employment protection in some sectors while liberalizing job creation in others.

The President pledged “initiatives to generate increased employment opportunities for local workers by allocating 22 professional sectors exclusively to local employees” while also emphasising international employment and investment opportunities in new ventures, including the Maldives International Financial Services Authority. This new banking and financial center, established in January of this year is, the President said, intended “to drive development of a wide range of offshore and onshore financial services.”

Dubai’s International Freezone Authority (IFZA) recently signed an agreement with the Maldives to develop a unique economic and financial services zone for the Maldivian island of Fonadhoo, and a new Maldives’ economic gateway is planned for the Ihavandhippolhu atoll. “There will be many opportunities for the country in these additional sectors,” Janah said.

In other words, for fortunate financial and service workers, the Maldives will transform from a dream tourist destination into a dream job opportunity.

Alongside his role as Principal Advisor to the President of the Maldives on Trade and Investment, Janah also serves as special advisor to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Additionally, he is Country Chair of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), the official business and trade network of the Commonwealth of Nations. Many of the latter organization’s members are small island states and keen to hear his advice and follow the Maldives’ path from sandy beaches to prosperity.

Driving forward intra-Commonwealth business engagement in the region, CWEIC has launched a hub office in Malé to act as a central point for Commonwealth businesses interested in exploring investment, trade, and business opportunities in the Maldives. Janah will act as Chairman of the hub, spearheading its work to enhance business and investment relationships between the Maldives and the Commonwealth’s 55 other member nations.

“This could be a game changer for the Maldives and open up opportunities in financial services with new employment opportunities for locals and expatriates as well,” he said.