We have to make tough decisions in the budget - Prof. Prasad

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says they have to make some tough decisions in the upcoming budget and they just do not have too many options.

While speaking during the Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on the Fijian Economy organised by Dialogue Fiji, Professor Prasad says there will always be challenges and we need to manage it.

He says we have a major challenge with skill loss due to migration and under investment in the people over the years especially in the area of technical education, we remain vulnerable to natural disasters where the impact of these natural disasters can be catastrophic on the economy, on the infrastructure and gender socio-economic conditions.

He says the global economy is also slowing down with the recent slowdown in the Australian and New Zealand economy that can affect Fiji and have an impact on tourism or businesses as well.

He says we have some medium to long term challenges, which includes diversifying the economy but we also need to shift away from the mentality that the public sector should lead growth and development.

Professor Prasad says that was a model that was seen before and they want to move that to one that is led by the private sector.

He says there is a need to raise productivity levels and become more competitive and innovative as a country.

The Deputy Prime says we need to not only build infrastructure, but make it more resilient and we need to empower youths and women quickly progressing away from women and youth development to women and youth led development.

He says we need to think collectively and critically in order to implement the best policy measures for health, education, upgrading and up-scaling of the labour force, creating a conducive employment environment and opportunities and adequately resourcing our key priority sectors.

Professor Prasad says we need to sustainably increase domestic exports and entice new foreign direct investment to improve our competitiveness and long term economic growth prospects.

He says they are working on the next budget and have confidence that it will be the budget that will lay the foundation for a new style of inclusive governance, inclusive policy making including social policies and fiscally responsible economy.

The 2023/2024 National Budget will be delivered next Friday.