The show focus on Fiji's trade and investment successes and challenges, the plans and opportunities in different sectors, the support and sustainability of small, micro and medium enterprises, the three parties working in the coalition government, the increasing number of scams, the progress on investigations and audit reports amongst other issues.
With much considerations have gone into the development of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs)over the years, the Government is looking at increasing MSMEs contribution to Fiji’s GDP to 30 percent in the next 10 years.
While highlighting the work that the coalition government has done in getting more people into MSMEs on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Co-operatives, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications Manoa Kamikamica says this year, they held the first MSME conference in Suva where it focused more on creating awareness around MSMEs.
He says they have targeted assistance for MSMEs with $120 million announced in the 2024/2025 national budget.
The Deputy Prime Minister says they want to create a MSME ecosystem in Fiji.
Kamikamica adds they have grants for small micro businesses which is about $500 to $1,000 and they also grants for cooperatives and small businesses that want to evolve into other things.
When questioned on the Government support for those business to remain sustainable in the long-run and where they can be assisted, Kamikamica says the best place to get advice from is from their Ministry.
The Government is working on reviewing the legislation regarding scams because scams can only be investigated once a report is lodged with the authorities.
When questioned on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan on the issue of scams where thousands of Fijians have lost hundreds and thousands of dollars, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Communications, Manoa Kamikamica says the Government will hold a National Scam Awareness Week from Monday to Friday next week to bring the whole issue to light at a national level.
He says the National Scam Awareness Week will be the first of its kind in the country and will be funded through the UN agencies and the government.
Kamikamica says the EbayShop recruitment scam did not only catch vulnerable people, but also the rich and well-established people.
He revealed that thousands of people lost their hard-earned money through the Ebay scam, however, it is unfortunate that some people are still trying to scam others knowingly that mobile money literacy or digital money literacy in the country is limited for a certain amount of the population.
He says they have set up a scam taskforce that includes stakeholders and the two mobile networks in the country, Vodafone Fiji and Digicel Fiji.
The Deputy Prime Minister says that Police have arrested a few people involved in scams, and three have been taken to court.
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