Warm greetings from the sunny side of life, Maldives!

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Since the beginning of this year, we have been battling the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic which hit the whole world violently as a storm. The experience of the pandemic has surely been devastating to all of us and we are still suffering from the socioeconomic repercussions due to the border closures and lockdowns that ensued everywhere. For IFAWPCA, the biggest setback was having had to postpone the 45th IFAWPCA Convention, which was due to be in June 2020 in the Maldives, to the fourth quarter of 2021. The safety, security, and well-being of our members remain our top priority.

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Despite the difficulties, I am delighted to appreciate the cooperation from all our members to collate the country reports from 18 member associations which outlined a snapshot of the situation, as of April 2020, of their respective construction industry and economy. In addition to this, the exchange of information between our member countries on the safety and health measures taken by them to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 in the construction industry has been a critical action that proved beneficial to all our members.

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Although it has been a rollercoaster of intense hardships, I must note and commend how quickly we adapted ourselves to the new normal. With the advancements in technology and human innovation, the world has become globalized into a single network and we have been able to ride this innovative wave and conduct various successful meetings virtually using the valuable input received by our members. In addition to the many meetings, we had on various fronts, I would like to note the major and very important meetings we have had this year as below;