Migration and movement of people abroad is not a new phenomenon and has been one of Government’s most pressing challenges over the past decade or so.
This was highlighted by Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad in response to statements made by Opposition MPs in Parliament last week.
Some parliamentarians claimed there was high unemployment and people were leaving the country.
Prof Prasad said these were “lies and misinformation” spread by the other side of the House.
“A number of them talked about immigration, and essentially what they were saying was that people were leaving because there’s no confidence in the country and in the government,” he said.
“After COVID, there was this huge demand for labour in Australia, New Zealand. They allowed students to go and work there for 40 hours instead of 20 hours initially. “There was a surge and between 2022 and 2023, the difference was only 1215 people.
“When you look at the statistics, people were leaving all the time for education, for migration, for employment. Now the government has recognised this is a problem.”
Prof Prasad said on one hand, remittances were at an all-time high due to the movement of people, however, it was a fact that Fiji still needed labour here.
“In fact, the official data from FNPF, formal sector employment has gone slightly above the 2019 level now. Salaries and wages have also increased.
“So, these claims of massive unemployment is another example of these generalisations, lies, misinformation and motherhood statements just to create an impression that the government was not doing well.”
Due to this, Prof Prasad said they would continue to invest in more technical training through the three universities and other institutions in the country.
