The Transport Ministry has added Qatar to the list of countries to whose residents Maldivian driving licenses will be issued without undergoing a test.
With recent changes to the Land Transport Act, the Transport Ministry was given the authority to issue permanent driver's licenses to countries the ministry accepts. In this regard, a 25-country list was compiled and publicized on August 2.
The countries on the initial list were Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, United Kingdom, United States of America, China, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Belgium and Germany. The list was later updated to include Bangladesh.
The list has been updated once again to include Qatar as the 27th country on the list. However, the announcement issued by the Transport Ministry along with the updated list states that license holders from the countries on the list may drive land vehicles in Maldives for a period of 90-days without the need to obtain another license. Therefore, it is believed that the government has halted issuing permanent licenses to foreign license holders. The Transport Ministry has not commented on the matter thus far.
Transport Minister Aishath Nahula
