Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad says the technical education environment is a disaster in this country and the government realises they have a real challenge in the loss of skills and labour but they are addressing that.
While speaking during a budget consultation session at Tavua College, Professor Prasad says they have provided money for quick competency based training for technical education.
Professor Prasad says technical colleges that were set up were running very well in various schools and there was a pathway but that was disrupted.
He says the previous government set up technical colleges and poured in more than $20 million but none of them are working now.
He says they are trying to restore it so that people can be trained.
Professor Prasad further says the cabinet has just decided that all those Fijian citizens who are overseas and do not have a Fijian passport and have adopted another country do not need a permit to come to Fiji anymore.
The Acting Prime Minister says they are not going to solve every problem tomorrow or in the next 6 months or even a year.
He says bringing the debt level down to a reasonable debt to GDP ratio will take maybe 10 to 15 years.
Professor Prasad says they want to create a fine balance in this budget so that they do not disrupt growth, provide enough resources, do not let people suffer and continue with the support people have been given and improve the business environment.
He also says this is not a government that is going to be vindictive and tell people off and stop them from talking.
