Minister addresses local training capacity

ECONOMY Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the fact that Fiji does not have a doctor that can conduct open heart surgery needs to be urgently addressed by ensuring there is a pathway for locals to become trained in the area.

Speaking at the Tertiary Scholarship and Loans Service (TSLS) key stakeholders awareness workshop in Suva this week, he said Fijians had the capacity to learn the necessary skills.

“The question that needs to be asked is why are we in that situation? What did we not do that led us to that situation where we do not have that capacity and how we can learn from the past,” Mr SayedKhaiyum said.

“As I’ve mentioned, 70 per cent of our population is below the age of 40 and 65 per cent below the age of 35 so we have a whole cadre of young minds, they can absorb lots of information.

“What can we do to nurture that and what environment can we create?

“The overall holistic approach is that we must be able to be assured and understand that we need to integrate technology, need to integrate new ways of teaching and need to integrate and understand what is our need and our demands.”

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum also officiated the unveiling of the revamped TSLS logo and launched the TSLS community awareness handbook.

“This review will be very useful for us as Government.

“And indeed it’s not only something that’s the intellectual property of one government or one political party, it should be the intellectual property of the entire country.

“And we need to be able to then have our analysis, have our policies based on these independent assessments.

“This review that has been really carried out by TSLS is precisely in that space that gives an opportunity for us to be able to look at what we can do to be able to better position Fiji.”

The workshop was aimed at providing a consultative platform to create awareness amongst its various stakeholders regarding the scholarships and study loans sponsored and funded by TSLS as announced in the 2022-2023 National Budget.