Government to improve state-owned enterprises

Government is committed to supporting improvements to legal, regulatory, and monitoring arrangements to strengthen state-owned enterprises’ (SOEs) overall performance, says Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka.

“We are doing this to ensure transparency and accountability mechanisms that encourage investor confidence and strengthen the management and operations for our SOEs,” he said.

“In the past 20 years, SOEs in Fiji have undergone significant reforms to improve efficiencies and service delivery, many of which were made possible with the assistance of ADB (Asian Development Bank).

“Fiji has forged a valuable partnership with ADB, working together to deliver sustainable and inclusive projects in infrastructure, health, renewable energy and finance.”

Mr Gavoka said ADB has assisted tremendously in strengthening financial performance, governance, and compliance within SOEs.

“This has had lasting effects on SOE stakeholders, particularly the SOE customer or client-base.”

He said harnessing capabilities to bring dialogue and collaboration to decision-making at all levels was important.

“If there is anything that we have learned from the past, it is that we must be purposeful in our investments in our SOEs and promote sustainable, inclusive growth and competitiveness.”