Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Biman Prasad highlighted Fiji’s infrastructure deficit during the National Budget consultations in Lautoka on Wednesday.
“We have a big infrastructure deficit in this country,” Prof Prasad said.
“I can tell you this, whether it’s health, whether it’s roads, water, sewage, we would need to spend about $8billion on fixing sewage and water throughout the country.”
Prof Prasad said the Government was laying out plans that could be executed in the next two years.
“In the area of health and medical tourism, because a lot of tourists want to come and are also worried about it, we are negotiating Ba and Lautoka hospitals. We want to fix it.
“We’ve made sure that in the last two years, services have improved.
He said the Indian government and Fiji have finalised arrangements for the construction of a specialised hospital in Suva, with the land readily available for the project.
“The MOU is done, construction is going to start. That’s almost a $200million investment with a 50-bed heart and 50-bed oncology and others to be built in Nasinu.
“So, we are seeing infrastructure development in tandem with the development of investment, not only just in the tourism industry, but the BPO sector.
“We are now the 10th most preferred destination for BPO’s but we don’t have enough space or buildings, so we provided some incentives in the last budget.”
Prof Prasad said the government had also lowered the duty on prefabricated materials to encourage investment in that area.
