FIJI is placing small businesses, micro-enterprises, and cooperatives at the heart of its strategy to revitalise rural economies and curb urban migration.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Industries, Commerce, Business Development and Public Enterprises Manoa Kamikamica made the comment in his opening address at the Strengthening Pacific Cooperatives through Education, Training and Regional Cooperation workshop held at the Tanoa International Hotel in Nadi On Wednesday.
Mr Kamikamica outlined the Government’s plan to make staying in villages economically viable and attractive for future generations.
He said that a lack of rural income drove the migration toward urban centres. By strengthening the cooperative model, he said the Government aimed to flip this dynamic, allowing citizens to earn sustainable incomes directly within their communities. Mr Kamikamica said that boosting agricultural and village-based enterprises would create financial stability comparable to high-paying urban positions, retaining talent and supporting local growth across the islands.
The strategy focuses heavily on key agricultural sectors while expanding social and financial inclusion, he said.
Mr Kamikamica said the Government supported the establishment of 20 cooperatives for a group of 7000 farmers known as the New Valley Farmers, who were already expanding their reach by exporting produce like cowpea to New Zealand and root crops to Nauru.
He added the initiative highlighted youth and women’s empowerment, demonstrated by a Nausori women’s cooperative that received a Government-funded three tonne truck to transport market vendors and generate secondary hire revenue.
“With the combination of the cooperatives and the mining markets, we are trying to slowly flip the direction and make it more attractive, or as some people say, sexy, to stay back in the village and earn a proper living,”Mr Kamikamica said. “My hope is that in time, you can be in the village and earn 20, 30, 40,000. That will be good enough,that’s like someone earning 200,000 in town and those are some of the dreams that we are currently looking at in terms of cooperatives for Fiji.”
