The Fiji Bus Operators Association (FBOA) is concerned and disappointed with the association’s exclusion from a meeting organised last week by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism to discuss national preparedness for the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Association president Nisar Ali Shah has written to Minister Premila Kumar to register the association’s concern that as the representative body of the Fiji bus industry, it was left out of an important meeting of stakeholders on Thursday, March 12, 2020.

“The bus industry employs approximately 10,000 people and provides transportation for about 330,000 people daily, including school children, and to be left out of this important meeting defies belief,” Mr Shah said in a statement issued this afternoon.

“We are astounded that our association and its members were not invited to participate in this meeting. With COVID-19 now declared a global pandemic, transportation around the world is being drastically affected.

“We are not immune to the devastating impacts of the virus and will soon begin to experience it for ourselves.”

He added the bus industry relied heavily on the import of spare parts and tyres and with production virtually halted in China, where most supplies are sourced from, there will be a huge impact on operations.

Attempts to obtain a comment from Mrs Kumar have so far been unsuccessful.