Cash for work initiative praised in Mai TV show

Ram Bajekal says Government’s initiative to compensate those who have been were terminated because of COVID-19 pandemic and resorted to planting trees is an innovative idea. Mr Bajekal, the Managing Director for FMF Foods, said this was an investment into Fiji’s future.

The cash for work or cash for tree planting programme is an initiative by the Ministry of Forestry to help those who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic.

Mr Bajekal was one of the five panellists at the ‘Reset: Fiji – A People’s Post COVID-19 dialogue series’ held at the University of the South Pacific last Thursday. The programme is broadcast by Mai TV.

Another panellist Sashi Kiran, founder of Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises and Development in Fiji, said not everyone benefited from the Fiji National Provident Fund COVID-19 assistance package.

She said Fiji was not only immune to the COVID-19 pandemic, but people suffered a lot more from the non-communicable diseases.

Former Reserve Bank of Fiji governor and now Unity Fiji Party leader, Savenaca Narube, claimed more than 120,000 Fijians around the country have either lost their jobs or were working on reduced hours.

Mr Narube said: “In my calculation, the country has more than 120,000 workers that one day were working, funding for their families, and the next day have lost their job or are working on reduced hours.

“That to me is about half and that is huge.”

He said to him it was an important responsibility and that Government should be held responsible for its use of public financing.

Mr Narube said that at this point, the Government needed to work out what could be done immediately to help Fijians.

Also present during the panel discussions were Professor Vijay Naidu from USP and Rohit Kishore, an Acting Dean at the Fiji National University.

The programme is an eight-part series of major sectors affected by the pandemic. of our working people

Fiji’s