‘Need to look at plan’
FIJI needs to relook its national development plans to consider today’s economic environment shaped by the COVID-19 global pandemic.
This was highlighted during the second roundtable discussions hosted by the University of Fiji (UniFiji) at its Saweni campus where stakeholders from higher education institutions, business and civil society gathered to talk about Fiji’s changing economic landscape as a result of the pandemic.
UniFiji acting vicechancellor Shaista Shameem said a recommendation compiled at the end of the discussions would be submitted to Government soon.
“Currently, our national development plan is a fiveyear and a 20-year national plan and they were devised before COVID,” she said during a news conference.
“After COVID, the world is a very different place.
“We should look at our national development plan now and see whether it’s still fit for purpose.
“If it’s no longer fit for purpose, then we really need to start relooking at it but that should be done now.”
She said the second roundtable discussions were the result of concerns raised in their first higher education meeting in January.
“The first roundtable was actually about Fiji’s higher education under the COVID-19 environment and the second roundtable was taking that further and a little bit more in detail about looking at both the national development plan of Fiji as well as the Ministry of Education’s strategic plan to see whether, in fact, there were some answers to us in the COVID-19 situation.
“So this particular roundtable discussion was looking at the national development plan and to see if it could be remodelled to cope with economic crisis that the country is under.”