The Australian Defence Force (ADF) handed over more than $5 million worth of plant and equipment to support the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) Engineers Support Squadron yesterday.
RFMF land force commander Col Onisivoro Covunisaqa said the project was made possible through the Vuvale Partnership – a partnership that has benefitted both defence forces immensely.
“The RFMF support squadron is the leading unit of the RFMF engineers in support of the Government’s national objectives,” he said.
“They are trained and equipped to perform basic horizontal tasks in support to general construction tasks such as road repair, airfield construction and maintenance.
“The squadron started off as a troop back in 1978 and one of the major projects undertaken was the construction of the Yakete Bridge, Ba. This was successful through Australian aid.
“They take on the construction of low-cost quality roads, which provides support to rural economies by allowing road access to commercial markets, access to government and other essential services such as health care and education for our rural communities but most importantly by providing access for emergency services and support during humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.”
Australian Defence Force Defence attaché Col Kane Wright said the handing over of equipment to RFMF had been a “long time coming.”
“It took a while to get here,” he said. “COVID-19 disrupted global supply chains and made the process longer than it should have been to get them into the hands of the RFMF so that they could do good work for the country and the people.”
Colonel Wright said Australia and Fiji would continue to partner on more initiatives in the future.
“In the next two to three months we will see more sheds going up so as more engineering equipment arrives. It will have a decent home and will be protected from the elements.
“In April and May there will be a group of Australian engineers here to support the RFMF engineers as we combine and partner to rebuild the Trade Training School and help enhance the trade abilities of the RFMF engineers.”
There are three tranches of equipment for the support squadron. The first five pieces of plant and equipment under tranche one was $AUD1.5m ($F2.2m).
“It included two 5-tonne dump trucks with trailers, two skid steer loaders and one 8-tonne excavator.