Helping the economy with a "pinch of salt"

These days all I hear, people talk about is how the Maldivian economy is not doing well and how dollar rate might be going up and so on. Our country has a lot of graduates who are experts in the fields of economics, finance and accounting. And its high time that these experts are brought together to devise policies for the economy and steer it in a better direction.

Let me tell you of an idea that I had when I attended a UN conference held in Delhi in 2004. This conference was about empowering the people at the bottom of the pyramid by using Small and Medium size Enterprises. Ok so let me tell you about the idea.

How any of you put salt in your food? I guess almost everyoneJ. I was told by a friend in customs that our county imports salt in excess of 200,000 $ per year (including resorts and hotels). Well it would be good to establish a small factory in one of the islands to make salt, since salt can be made from sea water which we have so much. And the government can put higher tariffs on the import duty for salt and protect the local producers. This allows the economy to retain at least 200,000 $ which is huge. There are many such small industries we can create, that can help the economy. Maybe this idea of mine, might not be the goose that lays the golden egg in helping our economy, but this will surely create jobs and retain much needed foreign currency in the county.