We are not beggars but patriotic people - AG

“We are not beggars but patriotic people who are concerned about our country.”

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum stated this while speaking on the Investment Fiji Bill 2022.

He says everyone knows the amount of damage caused by inundation of water in the past couple of months where our highways were washed away, and these things cost money.

Sayed-Khaiyum says as a result of that and despite being classified as a middle income country, Fiji was able to get concessional funding from the World Bank at 0% interest rate and 0.75% service charge which means we only pay back 47% of the funds we borrow.

He says the opposition members do not talk about this and simply look at the debt nominal figure.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the ANZ report recently has said Fiji has the ability to pay its loans.

The Minister for Economy says in the last couple of years, Fiji has borrowed $900 million at 0.01 percent.

He says we will only pay back 40 percent of the loan amount as 60% works out to be the grant component.

Meanwhile, Sayed-Khaiyum had revealed in the Revised Budget that the government’s debt is projected to reach 88.6% by the end of this fiscal year and based on the projected economic recovery and planned deficit reduction, the debt to GDP ratio is expected to come down to below 80% in the next 3 years