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A State subsidy program for Fiji’s fisheries and forestry sector will target an increase in domestic production and import substitution and improvement in the standard of living of small-scale fishermen and resource owners.
The targets will be set under policy guidelines to be formulated for the scheme which has helped 344 rural fishermen from 1999-2008 under a total budget of $3.88 million, and helped purchase portable saw mills with total budget of $100,000.
Other targets will include an increase and diversification in the supply of fish and forest products and the provision of employment opportunities.
Minister for Primary Industries Joketani Cokanasiga said the fisheries and forestry subsidy schemes were government’s way of promoting rural community and resource owners’ participation in Fiji’s economic development.
“Harvesting of these resources needs specialised skills, equipment and facilities, of which the required capital investment are often beyond the reach of ordinary resource owners living in rural areas. Subsequently, the entire process is driven by the need to alleviate poverty and integrate economies, hence effectively and positively contributing to nation building,” Cokanasiga said.
He said there was a need for a subsidy scheme in this sector to assist individual or community based projects that aspired to utilise their resources for community development or to operate small-scale businesses in remote communities.
Cokanasiga said the policy guidelines were formulated following a review of the existing subsidy scheme. He said the guidelines had five broad parameters namely development strategy, regulatory requirements, financial considerations, administrative considerations, and other issues.
He said assistance under the scheme would be split four ways with 20 percent going to production and use of technology, 15 percent for marketing and market development, 60 percent for value adding/downstream processing and 5 percent for employment creation.
