PM says mismanagement of Fiji Pine Trust was among the worst leadership failures since the loss of Fiji’s National Bank

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has reminded the pine landowners that as long as they are in Government, no one can bulldoze their way into the Fiji Pine Trust which is now more transparent and serves the landowners equally.

The Prime Minister says that just over a decade ago, Fiji’s pine Industry struggled to stay solvent due to a volatile cocktail of rampant corruption and terrible management.

He adds that this failure extended across every horizon where the level of mismanagement was among the worst leadership failures since the loss of Fiji’s National Bank.

He adds that except for this time, the FijiFirst Government was there to stem the bleeding.

He says they stepped in to save this industry from collapse with commercial savvy and merit-appointed leadership who helped the Fiji pine industry right the ship.

Meanwhile Bainimarama handed out $6 million in dividends on behalf of Fiji Pine to landowners.

The Prime Minister says that for the first time in history, the Fiji Pine Group is debt-free after making a lump sum payment of $2.2 million to the Fijian Government to repay a loan taken out in the 1990s.