Minister of Communication, Science and Technology Mohamed Maleeh Jamal has stated allowing private developers to create software applications for the government and provide support services will open a good source of income for young developers in the Maldives. The minister made the remarks following the decision to provide private developers with the codebase for systems developed by National Centre for Information Technology (NCIT) for the development of software applications for government bodies.
Minister Maleeh said the decision to allow private developers to develop software applications for government bodies using the NCIT codebase provides young developers an opportunity to generate income while staying in their home islands. He added it is a much needed change for the development of the information technology industry of the Maldives.
The Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology released a statement on July 9, revealing the decision to provide a private developer the access to the source code of a system developed by NCIT for a government office. The ministry stated the decision will enable the development of further components of the system by the private developer as required by the government office.
The developer to receive access to the source code of a system under the Development and Training Environment of NCIT was Terabyte Private Limited. Terabyte was the developer of the Makudi online portal for the Ministry of Defence.