Government is committed to fostering inclusive economic growth and specifically focusing on expanding the role of women and youth in co-operatives.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Co-operatives, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications Manoa Kamikamica told the Parliament that co-operatives were also ideal for women and youth participation in economic activities.
He said it was a valuable tool for empowering women and youth by creating income generating activities for them.
“Just by way of some data, in the West alone, we witnessed in terms of membership, an increase of about 148 per cent for women (female) membership, raising the proportion of women cooperatives in total from 12 per cent to 24 per cent over the last year,” Mr Kamikamica said.
“This growth has been the result of some comprehensive outreach campaigns, tailored training programs and financial support systems that have started encouraging more women participation, and I refer particularly to the Ministry of Women, who have been advocating strongly for women in business and of course, other multilateral organisation as well.”
He said similarly, the ministry also recognised that Fiji’s youth represented a tremendous opportunity as well for cooperative growth.
“I would like to specifically call out the Minister for Youth, who has communicated a message to all our young men and women and where they want to set up business initiatives, that they do them through cooperatives.
“And so similarly, we are seeing encouraging signs in terms of the growth of cooperatives, youth-based cooperatives, and we will continue to focus on that.
“As we know, young people bring fresh ideas and entrepreneurial spirit that comes with youth, that can propel cooperatives going forward.”
