Supporting the delivery of health services will be difficult if we continue to lose skilled workers to Aus and NZ – PM

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says it will be difficult to support the delivery of health services if we continue to lose our skilled health workers to Australia and New Zealand.

While speaking during a press conference in Wellington with New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins Rabuka says Fiji urgently needs to up-skill its people and has requested New Zealand’s assistance in capacity development.

Rabuka says while we recover from the devastation of COVID-19, we need to refocus our plans to build medical infrastructure that will address non-communicable diseases which claims thousands of lives in our country every year.

The Prime Minister also confirmed that New Zealand's Minister for Defence, Andrew Little will be visiting Fiji next week to finalise a Defence Agreement with Fijian Minister for Home Affairs.

Rabuka says the agreement will allow defence officials to undertake engagements in different areas including capacity building and up-skilling, exposure to new technology, interoperability and technical support among others.

He says Fiji and New Zealand share interest in enhancing security corporation to meet our common challenges.