[Fiji] Diplomat underlines Fiji's poverty plight

from Fiji Live

Rising poverty is a major challenge facing Fiji with more than 250,000 people living in hardship, Fiji's ambassador to the United States Jesoni Vitusagavulu said.

Speaking as guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Hagerstown in Maryland, close to Washington DC, Vitusagavulu said the Fiji Government and service organisations like Rotary were working hard to eradicate the problem.

This he said may shatter the image of Fiji in their minds - a tropical South Pacific paradise where life is largely blissful.

"We have that happy side but we also have an ugly side - rising poverty," he said.

Vitusagavulu said the Fiji Government was grateful for the work service organisations like Rotary were doing to alleviate the hardship and supplement government's efforts.

"We have 13 Rotary clubs in Fiji which are doing a good job in reducing hardships faced by many people in Fiji," he said.

The Fiji Government, he said, believes that the most effective way to eradicate poverty was to greatly grow the economy.

"Government's attention is focused on expanding the economy to eradicate poverty. An expanding economy creates much-needed income opportunities for those who are poor due to unemployment and raises overall income levels," Vitusagavulu said.

Vitusagavulu said earnings from tourism, remittances and from new industries like movie production, call centres and data processing centres were helping to cushion the reduction in exports.

"However they are not sufficient to offset the impact on the economy of a major contraction in exports that we are experiencing," he said.

Vitusagavulu added that Fiji's overseas missions were putting greater emphasis on economic diplomacy and to seek ways of finding new access for Fiji's exports to tackle this problem.