Acting Prime Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has confirmed that once the $2.6 million Levuka Market opens, the vendors will not have to pay their market fees for a year.
He highlighted this during the ground breaking ceremony of the market today.
Sayed-Khaiyum says people in Fiji are very good at coming to ground breaking ceremonies but they are not very good at looking after the properties.
He says the market will be the people’s and it will be their responsibility to maintain it and look after it.
The Acting Prime Minister is also urging the people of Levuka to come together as a community as there is no tourism association anymore or a Levuka or Ovalau oriented association that can talk about their problems and can present it to the Minister or to the Government in a cohesive manner.
The market is being built from contributions by the New Zealand, Australian and Canadian Governments towards the UN Women Market for Change Project.
Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, John Feakes says Australia has supported the first phase of the Market for Change Project and will contribute just over $5 million towards the second phase in the next five years.
UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office Representative, Sandra Bernklau while speaking on behalf of the Government of Canada says Canada takes pride in being a contributor towards the Market for Change Project as they know how important it is to increase opportunities for women.
She says Cananda’s support is aimed at promoting gender equality through the empowerment of market vendors and this is particularly important to Canada.
Bernklau adds the ground breaking for the construction for the new market signals new opportunities for all the vendors and supporting the livelihood of the people in the informal sector is really critical to re-boosting the economy following COVID-19.
