British RAF airbase (a Transshipment scenario)

Because of its strategic location, it was the British who took advantage of its potential during 1940s and later building a Royal Air force base to serve as reinforcement to the RAF Far East Air Force Base in Singapore.

Originally Gan Island was extensively used by bombers, fighters and for shipments on their way to Singapore and other destinations in the Far East Asia during the late 1950s and the 1960s. Later during 1970s the British withdrew its commitments east of the Suez and left Gan in tin 1976.

Several internet sites with pictures show the scale of the British operation that also contributed to the welfare of the Maldivian people.

Tourist Hotels ( a Tourism scenario)

Since the British has built Gan with an airport capable of serving domestic and regional flights with passenger capacities ranging from 18 to 270 passengers, it’s only a matter of developing tourist hotels and mounting flights.

Decades back, Equator Village was the first to take advantage of this opportunity and is still in operation as a village type tourist destination. It was a startup for a small investment from the British infrastructure that was available in Gan itself.

Garment Factories (a Production Plant scenario)

Since the British has built Gan with an airport, a harbor, good infrastructure such as water and sewerage, accommodation blocks etc. it was ideal to accommodate thousands of employees as factory workers and turn those idle warehouses left by the British into factories.

Foreign companies took the advantage of running factories during 1980s till Maldives got graduated from Least Developed Country status to Developing Country status of the UN system. This led to the end of certain concessions from Government to foreign investments and finally came to a halt.

It was viable in its time and still the possibility of an investment like this is to be investigated to suit current circumstances.

Flying School (a Civil Aviation Training Facility scenario)

Since the British has built Gan with an airport with warehouses, accommodation blocks it was just a matter of customizing the available infrastructure to a training facility for pilot training.

As the airport is not too busy with commercial activity Asian Aviation Academy was the first to tap into the potential of operating a Flying School. Now the school is still in operation with so many students.