00:00I think India, especially in the region, and not just for the region alone, but globally,
00:07has been a leader in many, many ways.
00:12If you had to look at the economic development that India is looking at,
00:19the technological development that is there,
00:22and I think for our part, in terms of education,
00:26how India contributes to educating the world,
00:30educating the region, and providing skills,
00:33I think it's important to make a recognition of that.
00:43I think as a country, for example, the Maldives,
00:46we have been benefiting a lot through corporations that exist.
00:51Quite a lot of scholarships, for example,
00:53are being provided to our students to come and study and engage together.
01:00Equally, there are also very strong business relationships
01:04that both our countries are connected together in.
01:10So in the education arena, in the business arena,
01:14but I think more importantly, in the social connection that we have,
01:20both culturally and also through travel between countries,
01:26it facilitates for us to build this relationship and continue it.
01:33So India remains a major partner for us
01:37and also a major contributor for development in our cases.
01:43I would like to make a note of the fact that
01:47a lot of our very important two sectors,
01:51the health sector and also the education sector,
01:55we do get very direct contributions from the Indians
02:02because we have many Indian teachers who are working in our schools,
02:10contributing to our education.
02:12As I've been saying, this relationship is, I think, growing day by day
02:18and our relationship goes a long, long way.
02:22I think we are two countries that are working very closely together
02:27and as I mentioned, if you are to even take the health sector,
02:31a lot of Indian doctors and nurses are serving in the Maldives,
02:35helping us in the very critical sector.
02:40Similarly, areas where we may not have services available in the Maldives,
02:45our patients are coming here to India.
02:52We are only a few minutes away,
02:56in fact, less than one hour away on a flight from India.
03:00But as mentioned, education remains a key component
03:06and I think events such as this facilitate us to make even greater connections,
03:12especially one-on-one connections, B2B connections
03:16and also collaborative connections with universities, with businesses,
03:21so that developments that are happening here,
03:25we can try to make the best opportunities of this.
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