Fiji delegation meeting with Prime Minister’s Office Malaysia officials.
A 10-member delegation from the Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management, and the Ministry of Primary Industries are currently on a one-week tour to Malaysia to share good practices with the Malaysian Government.
The delegation, led by Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management permanent secretary, Filipe Alifereti, includes Commissioner Western Joeli Cawaki, Commissioner Central, Laisenia Tuitubou, Commissioner Northern, Mr Alipate Bolalevu, Commissioner Eastern Netani Rika, Permanent Secretary for Fisheries & Forests Inoke Wainiqolo, Deputy Secretary for Agriculture, Mr Uraia Waibuta, Principal Fisheries Officers George Madden and Shalendra Singh.
They will also be joined by the Minister responsible for both the ministries, Mr Inia Seruiratu.
“The visit will enable us to learn from one of the advanced developing countries in the world, Malaysia,” Mr Alifereti said.
“Malaysia and Fiji have a lot of similarities and this is a good opportunity for Fiji to consider some of Malaysia’s policies in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and rural development.”
On Monday (16 June), the team met with the Malaysia’s Ministry of Rural and Regional Development and later moved to the Prime Minister’s Department, where it met with the Implementation and Coordination Unit and the Economic Planning Unit.
“Our meetings so far have been an eye opener and we were able to see how Malaysia, which has been implementing various Transformation Policies including the Rural Transformation Policy for the last 40 years, has been implementing an integrated development framework covering all sectors,” Mr Alifereti said.
Malaysia hopes to achieve developed nation status by 2020 and the building blocks laid over the years are coming to fruition.
“Although Fiji has been looking at various models from developed nations such as Singapore, Malaysia provides another alternative because of its current status as a developing nation, which can spur Fiji’s incremental progress,” he added.
The delegation will meet with other agencies to gain more understanding of Malaysia’s policies before returning to Fiji. The Fiji High Commission in Malaysia has been accompanying the delegation to all its meetings.
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