ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Alternative Industries to Tourism Need to be Explored: Shameem
Alternative sources of income and sustainable industries were discussed during the University of Fiji’s Roundtable on ‘Education and Economic Growth: Remodelling Fiji’s National Development Plan post-COVID-19’.
The event was held at the Saweni campus in Lautoka on Friday. The Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Shaista Shameem said suggestions were put forth by participants
“In fact, what education should be doing is it should be driving national economic growth, so investment in the social protection mechanisms of education, health and welfare of the nation is going to create its own economic growth anyway, because our biggest industry tourism, did not take very long to disintegrate and collapse after COVID-19,” she said.
“Similarly, we know from the past, that the sugar industry has also been filled with all sorts of problems and facing all sorts of difficulties and so now its whether we are going to be looking at the same industries and trying to rejuvenate them when they were already in difficulties, or are we trying and we say that we wait until they rejuvenate themselves?”
She said innovative areas such as spices and medicinal marijuana were discussed as well.
“It’s not about people going into the dope industry as such, but it’s marijuana for medicinal purposes, which is a big industry in the world and the suggestion was that we should look at that from that perspective so that it can earn us the export funds that we need,” she said.
“Another important one was spices. Why are we importing spices from India and other places when we’ve got small producers who are growing cinnamon, cloves and things like that? It’s really looking more and more at our development domestically.”
She said there was still uncertainty on the status of higher education in terms of white collar jobs. “So we’re reversing the whole idea and we turning the whole notion of education and industry on its head. It’s not the industry that should be driving education, it’s education that should be devising the interest industries that will be suitable for economic growth,” she said.