- WOMEN MUST REALISE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL – The Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Hon. Rosy Akbar has encouraged women to realise their full potential.
- FIJI SHOULD LEARN FROM SAEMAUL UNDONG MODEL: MINISTER TUITUBOU – Fiji needs to emulate the Saemaul Undong model of Korea in order to address poverty and other related issues.
- FIJI COMMERCE COMMISSION VISITS FIJIAN MISSION IN GENEVA – A delegation from the Fiji Commerce Commission and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism visited the Mission of Fiji to the United Nations in Geneva on 7th July, 2015.
- NDP CONSULTATIONS BEGIN IN THE NORTH – People in the Northern Division can now look forward to the National Development Planning consultations which started in Naulumatua House in Nabouwalu in the Bua Province yesterday.
- LEAD, INSPIRE AND DELIVER – Public servants in positions of leadership need to lead, inspire and deliver if they are to be recognised as capable and good leaders.
- CALLS FOR MORE DIALYSIS CENTRES – Calls have been made to Government to increase the number of dialysis centres around the country and supplement the current five which are located in Lautoka, Suva and Labasa.
- WOMEN MUST REALISE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL
The Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Hon. Rosy Akbar has encouraged women to realise their full potential.
Minister Akbar made these comments as she officially opened the Bua Women’s Craft Show at Naulumatua grounds in Nabouwalu today.
Addressing women at the craft show during her first official visit to Bua, Minister Akbar said winners from the divisional craft shows will take part in the National Women’s Expo in October.
This is the eighth craft show organized by the Ministry of Women with 51 women’s group in Bua in participation.
“We believe if we empower one woman, she will be an agent of change in the society. These women have skills and challenges as they are agents of change within their homes and communities,” Minister Akbar said.
Minister Akbar said there is a need for all women to work together and move forward positively in order to raise each other’s self-esteem and confidence.
“Bua province is no different from other provinces; all women have talents and skills that need to be shown.”
Minister Akbar said they understood the need for more markets to open up in Bua and she urged women to take part in such expos and showcase their talents and skills.
“We want to open up new markets to get better values for your hardwork and be product focussed,” Ms Akbar said.
She said this year the Ministry was focusing on quality products and they have been working with various ministries to make women’s crafts more marketable.
“We want to make the products marketable with higher price due to quality. We want originality, creativity and something new,” Minister Akbar said.
Minister Akbar added that the Ministry of Women, in partnership with the Fiji Arts Council, has been organizing such expos as a build up to the National Women’s Expo 2015 scheduled from the 14th to 16th October at Suva’s Vodafone Arena.
- FIJI SHOULD LEARN FROM SAEMAUL UNDONG MODEL: MINISTER TUITUBOU
Fiji needs to emulate the Saemaul Undong model of Korea in order to address poverty and other related issues.
These were the comments by the Minister for Youth and Sports Hon. Laisenia Tuitubou following the visit to the birthplace of modern Korea, Gyeongsangbuk-do.
“This visit was encouraging as we were able to witness firsthand how the Saemaul Undong model assisted in re-modernising the lives of the people of Korea,” Minister Tuitubou said.
“Fiji needs to implement the principles of the Saemaul Undong model in order to alleviate poverty and live peaceful lives.”
Minister Tutubou highlighted the principles of independence, diligence and collaboration of the Saemaul Undong model and said that this could be used in Fiji’s context.
“The pioneers of the Saemaul Udong in Cheong-do Village worked independently without any assistance, they worked with diligence and collaboration as a community.”
“They aspired to realize a green, smart and happy global Korea which was their motivation behind the development of their country and this has laid the foundation for what their nation is today,” Mr Tuitubou said.
He reiterated the need for Fiji to adopt Saemaul Udong because of the resources that were readily available in the country.
“Unlike Korea, Fiji has an abundance of resources and their accomplishments should be a challenge for us to use our resources wisely in order to uplift our livelihood and nation,” he said.
Saemaul Globalization Foundation chief executive officer Lee Ji Ha said that Korea used to be one of the poorest countries in the 1960s and the Saemaul Udong model paved the way forward for the country’s improvement.
“Saemaul Udong was the foundation of Korean modernization and it is a ray of hope in the eradication of poverty in developing countries because Korea was one of the poorest countries in 1960 but has since joined the ranks of advanced countries,” he said.
“It is one of Korea’s representative brands as it is a valuable intellectual property which can be shared with people around the globe, all we ask is for your continued interest and participation in the effort to globalize Saemaul Udong which is aimed to improve the quality for all and build a prosperous global village,” Mr Ha said.
- FIJI COMMERCE COMMISSION VISITS FIJIAN MISSION IN GENEVA
A delegation from the Fiji Commerce Commission and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism visited the Mission of Fiji to the United Nations in Geneva on 7th July, 2015.
The delegation and representatives of the Mission attended a peer review on Fiji’s competition law and policies, at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
The review, which is a voluntary process, included a bipartite review of Papua New Guinea and Fiji’s laws and policies in relation to competition law and policies.
- NDP CONSULTATIONS BEGIN IN THE NORTH
People in the Northern Division can now look forward to the National Development Planning consultations which started in Naulumatua House in Nabouwalu in the Bua Province yesterday.
Speaking at the consultation forum Provincial Administrator Bua, Inoke Tuiwainunu said the purpose of such consultations is to hear the views of the representatives from respective communities and villages.
“We want to hear their views on what they envision for Bua in the next 20 years,” Mr Tuwainunu said.
Mr Tuiwainunu said the respective communities are the right people to inform the government on the various needs and visions they have for their community’s and settlements.
Bua Assembly of God congregation representative Viliame Ratatodro said he appreciated the government’s need to hear from the voice of the people hence holding such consultations.
Mr Ratatodro said he would like to see Fiji as a loving and united Fiji in the next five to 20 years.
“As the saying goes, Fiji the way the world should be, but as we can see things going on right now in Vanua Levu, there have been a lot of social ill problems, so as a Minister of God I would like to put up a recommendation if we could exercise sharing the word of God everywhere we go,” Mr Ratatodro said.
He also added that it was important for government to consider building a secondary school in Nabouwalu.
“There is a need to have a good secondary school as Bua College and Solevu High are far from Nabouwalu and a tertiary school is needed in Nabouwalu for our children,” Mr Ratatodoro said.
He said he has lived in Nabouwalu for the past 14 years and the only development that took place in the area was the Nabouwalu jetty and things have remained the same since then.
“There’s nothing much done here whatever is in Nabouwalu is still the same as 14 years ago, parents and children have gone to Suva for better education and employment opportunities, our children have already left.” Mr Ratatodro added.
He said government must find a way to keep their children in their birth place so that they can live closer to their parents and help in the development of Nabouwalu.
Ministry of Strategic Planning Economist Luke Koroisave said it was important for the people in the North to take participate in the consultation and have their visions and dreams heard by government.
“Previously, Fiji’s development planning process was confined to the headquarters whereby local communities are represented by the provincial council and commissioner’s office,” Mr Koroisave said.
Mr Koroisave said that at times concerns and issues are filtered during the process and only certain projects were being prioritized.
The National Development Planning consultation will continue in the North until the 28th of this month.
- LEAD, INSPIRE AND DELIVER
Public servants in positions of leadership need to lead, inspire and deliver if they are to be recognised as capable and good leaders.
These were the comments of Public Service permanent secretary Parmesh Chand as he delivered the closing remarks on the occasion of the Leadership Training Course for Middle Management Officers at the PSC Centre for Training and Development in Nasese.
Mr Chand said public servants in middle management ranks are at strategic positions in terms of ensuring there is effective service delivery as well as in terms of succession planning.
He said the public service of today, tomorrow and the future is relying on middle managers as they are the ones who will ultimately be in positions of substantive leadership sooner or later.
“As such, the onus is on us to prepare them well so that we leave behind a pool of personnel with skills and expertise to step in more senior roles as and when these positions become vacant and get advertised,” Mr Chand said.
Mr Chand said it is expected of middle managers to start embracing the values of critical and strategic thinking as well as seeing things from picture points of view as these are what matters in terms of distinctions between operational level staff and those in positions of leadership.
He said this is one of the priority areas of capacity building adopted by the Public Service Commission in line with ongoing survey of skill needs in the public service.
The three-days training event was conducted on a outsourced basis by the Pacific Technical and Further Education (TAFE) and USP, which was attended by 32 public servants from middle management level.
- CALLS FOR MORE DIALYSIS CENTRES
Calls have been made to Government to increase the number of dialysis centres around the country and supplement the current five which are located in Lautoka, Suva and Labasa.
During the National Development consultation at the Namaka Public School in Nadi , members of the public also requested for a reduction in charges at the centres.
Currently there are dialysis centres at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Lautoka Hospital, Labasa Hospital and two private centres in Suva and Nadi.
“We have only a few centres around the country which is also very expensive,” he said.
“We would like to see Government providing this critical service in all major centres around the countries in the next five to ten years.”
Mohammed Mustapha of Waqadra in Nadi said that he understood that resources were limited to Government.
“I understand it is very costly to set – up a dialysis centre but maybe government could start taking into consideration the establishment of these centres.
Press Release