Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says most of the hotels in Viti Levu who have “Love Our Locals” campaign have told him that they get more bookings every time there is a government pay week.
While speaking to the people of Rotuma during a talanoa session, Sayed-Khaiyum says these hotels have a lot of cheap rates and as a result, a lot of the locals are using the hotels which means a lot of more hotel workers get called in to work.
He says this is why the government had decided not to cut the salaries of civil servants by 10% as $150m would have been sucked from the economy because there would be $150m less that people would be spending.
Sayed-Khaiyum says when there is more money in the economy, it circulates and there’s robustness in the economy.
He adds says they are talking to the development partners in respect of how Fiji can open up the borders in various ways.
During the session, the people of Rotuma also brought up issues related to roads, the hospital that is being built in Ahau, telecommunication infrastructure on the island and another major issue that was raised was the ongoing problem of fruit flies.
Sayed-Khaiyum says all these issues will be brought to the attention of the relevant ministries and Biosecurity Authority of Fiji.
[images: Fijian Govt.]
