Experts weigh in on upcoming Budget announcement

Academic Rohit Kishore is adamant that the upcoming National Budget announcement would be a sort of strategised budget, indicating Fiji’s drive out of this recession.

Speaking at the ‘Reset: Fiji – A People’s Post COVID-19 dialogue series’ that aired on MaiTV on Sunday night, he said he was hopeful the announcement would stimulate economic growth and not focus so much on Government’s expenditure.

“A strategised budget, hitting where it matters, putting money where your mouth is, determining who was the engine of growth for our economy,” Mr Kishore said.

“From my point of view, the business sector is the engine room of our economy, so when business grows, the economy grows.” He added that it was important that at this time Government lead, seeing to the implementation of key fiscal policies. Mr Kishore also indicated how the business sectors were working closely with Government reforms.

“For the banking sector, banks have restructured themselves and providing relief for six months for the ease of individuals and businesses,” he said.

“The Fiji National Provident Fund in partnership with the Government have provided relief packages for those that may have lost their jobs or working on reduced hours,” he added.

Professor Vijay Naidu

A competitive commodity Fiji can explore and diversify into is marijuana.

University of South Pacific Professor Vijay Naidu said this was an opportunity for Fiji to take on the supply of marijuana for medicinal and recreational use and could be sold through Friendly Fiji.

“Marijuana is criminalised in Fiji and people are being sent to jail,” he said.

“Police spends a lot of time arresting these.”

He said in Fiji, we are destroying a potential that Government could regulate. He added that Australia and New Zealand have both gone down this path and it has been lucrative for both governments in terms of the return made on industrialised marijuana.

“In a province in South Africa, they export directly to the US, which works well for their government,” Professor Naidu added.

Sashi Kiran

Founder and Director Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises and Development in Fiji Sashi Kiran also weighed in on the Budget. She said there hasn’t been a lot of focus on helping those who are unemployed as a result of the pandemic; to assist them in building capacity for sustainable living.

Ms Kiran has acknowledged that a lot of the focus had been going into small and micro businesses, but not a lot to focus on those Fijians who were innovators and those wanting to start their own businesses.