Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama says with every new development they achieve and every new dollar they put in the iTaukei landowners pockets, they make the old politics more and more insignificant.
While speaking at the Vuda land commissioning project today, Bainimarama says there are some who don’t like this, he does not care about that as all he cares about is progress and prosperity for all of our people.
He says the 2013 Fijian Constitution bestowed 91 percent of all land in Fiji to the iTaukei for all time – an inheritance that represents the greatest source of potential wealth in the country.
The Prime Minister says while the protections of that land were steadfast, its ability to provide landowners with high lease returns was held back by years of under-development.
He says cash does not grow on trees – it comes from land that is leased.
The Prime Minister says developing land requires upfront capital that many of our landowning units lacked.
He says that left landowners vulnerable to exploitation by outsider third party developers.
Bainimarama says these deep-pocketed developers may be able to develop the land, but they would usually lease it themselves and share only a meagre slice of their enormous profits with the landowners.
The Prime Minister also says in other cases, due to the shameful and needless politicisation of land in this country, landowners have avoided development out of misplaced fear.
Bainimarama says it is simply the sad state-of-affairs that some political interests in this country want to keep landowners poor, afraid, and dependent on weak leadership.
He says the Government he leads believe that landowners should be financially empowered and free to pursue development that betters their lives and builds generational wealth for their communities.
The Prime Minister says they have launched a sub-division initiative that was based on the values of entrepreneurship, stewardship, and partnership.
Through it, Government directly funds the ambition of forward-looking landowners or landowning units to develop their land and earn market rate returns from the leasing of their land.
The Government has allocated resources for iTaukei landowners to support them with complete land development packages.
This means that Government does everything from clearing and leveling the ground, to subdividing the land and then ensuring connectivity to all utility services including electricity, water, and brand-new paved roads.
Last week, they unveiled the first completed sub-division project in Nasoqeloa, Tailevu.
Today, they unveiled the second project in Vuda and the first in the Western Division, a subdivision prepped for eight residential lots at a total cost of $561,616.
The next one was done in Yadua this afternoon.
Bainimarama congratulated Alipate Tavai, for being among the first to recognize the great benefits of this initiative.
He also says this is proof of what a good government can do when it partners with the people, and it is an aspiration for iTaukei landowners nationwide.
The Prime Minister says now is the time for more of our landowning communities to develop their land and become part of this story of progress.
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