FIJI’S delegation to the COP29 is more than capable of handling negotiations because of the level of expertise and skill each member possesses.

Minister of Finance Professor Biman Prasad said the delegation to Azerbaijan would depart on November 11.

“Many of us have been part of many negotiations in the past, not just as a politician, but as an academic,” Prof Prasad said.

“I’ve been involved in many negotiations, including trade negotiations, WTO ,and so we have a lot of skills within the delegation.

“The permanent secretary for Finance is going to be in the delegation, he’s negotiated hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of the country over the last three or four years.

“This COP is going to be a finance COP, so those people who say that I may be new to this, I’m actually not new to COP negotiations, COP processes and national negotiations. So, all I want to say to the critics, just relax, we are well prepared and before we get into the plane, we will be 100 per cent in terms of what we’re going to do there.”

He said he would be meeting the travelling delegates next week.

“I will give a press conference on the November 4, providing additional details but when we talk about the delegation, 55-member delegation or 56-member delegation, not everybody is a representative or a civil servant or from the Government.”

He explained that each private sector representative’s travelling costs would be funded by their organisation while the Government simply provided the accreditation for official purposes and therefore be a member of the Fiji delegation with an issued badge.

“Some Fiji citizens would go and get an accreditation from Tonga, for example, or from Tuvalu or from Marshall Islands

“So, I think some of the critics know this, but I know they still want to misrepresent some of the information, but as I said, we will provide more details on November 4 but in terms of preparation, we have some very skillful people, some who’ve been in negotiations in the past.”