Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Strategic Planning, National Development and Statistics, Professor Biman Prasad says grants to the University of the South Pacific will be released but when and how it will be done will be discussed with the Vice Chancellor, University Management and the Council.
He highlighted this while responding to a question by fijivillage on whether the Government will release funds for the new USP semester during a press conference at the Ministry of Finance following his official welcome at the Ministry.
Professor Prasad says they want to work out a timetable to not only pay back what was due, but also when they deliver the budget, the grant, based on the formula will be included in the budget and will be formalised.
The Deputy Prime Minister further says paying grant to the USP is a commitment that all parties in the coalition government made and from now onwards, Fiji will be a real partner with the USP.
He says the Prime Minister has already lifted the ban on Professor Pal Ahluwalia and they look forward to a very cooperative relationship with USP and indeed with all other universities in the country because they believe that empowering the universities, giving them academic freedom and autonomy is good for the students, staff and the country.
Professor Prasad adds as a government, they are going to be very liberal with the academic community in this country because they want them to know that this is a government which is going to be open and help them do research.
He says they will not be afraid of critical research being done by academics, whether they are in Fiji or from outside and they will have access to data wherever possible.
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