New Delhi, Aug 29: India has targeted to train 175 civil servants from Maldives through tailor-made programmes in specific disciplines, according to an official statement issued on Thursday.

A bilateral meeting was held on Thursday between National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) Director General V Srinivas and Maldives Civil Service Commission President Mohamed Nasih to firm up the implementation modalities of the India-Maldives MoU for imparting training to the civil servants of Maldives over a period of five years 2024 -2029, it said.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed and renewed between the NCGG, government of India, and the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Republic of Maldives, for capacity building programs for 1,000 Maldivian civil servants on August 9 in Malé, Maldives.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Maldives' Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer renewed the MoU for the period 2024-2029 as part of the development partnership discussions between both nations, said the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

In view of the need of the CSC Maldives, the NCGG agreed to having customised programmes for middle level civil servants and senior civil servants of Maldives, it added.

“The CSC Maldives requested for tailor made specialised programmes in specific disciplines for which NCGG will be designing need-based modules. Five (5) programmes will be held in the year 2024-25 targeting a total of 175 civil servants,” the statement said.

In 2024, the NCGG had achieved the remarkable milestone by fulfilling the mandate of training a total of 1,000 civil servants, including Permanent Secretaries, Secretary Generals and high-level delegates from Maldives over a total of 32 capacity building programmes in field administration for the civil servants of Maldives, including programmes for Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and for Information Commission Office of Maldives (ICOM) under the MoU signed on June 8, 2019.

Recognising the success of this collaboration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives, had requested for the renewal of the MoU for another five years, the statement said.

This renewed partnership will continue to enhance the capabilities of Maldives civil servants in public policy, governance and field administration, further strengthening the ties between India and the Maldives, it added.

The NCGG is committed to fostering knowledge exchange and collaboration on public policy and governance across several countries.

Its mid-career capacity building programs emphasise citizen-centric governance, improving service delivery and promoting innovations in governance. These programs also showcase India's best practices in digital empowerment of citizens and digital transformation of institutions.