The Ministry of Industry, Trade, Tourism and Transport had used majority of their budget allocations in the FY2016 to 2017 and FY2017 to 2018.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport permanent secretary Shaheen Ali during their virtual submissions yesterday on the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 Annual Reports to the standing committee on Economic Affairs.
“In terms of how we spent or how the utilisation was, the utilisation was very high for the 2016/2017 financial year.
“We were given about $77 million, $71m was utilised so 93 per cent was our efficient rate and approximately 50 per cent of that budget was allocated to capital projects.
“So this was sort of an improvement with regards to capital projects compared to the last financial year in 2017 to 2016.”
Mr Ali said for 2017 to 2018 again the ministry utilisation was quite high, about 94 per cent. He said they were given a budget of $108m and they had spent $105m in that year.
Mr Ali said $20m was devoted to the MSME and grassroot community development sector through their various targeted programs such as the Young Entrepreneurship Scheme, the Micro-Small Business Grant, National Export Strategy and the Integrated Human Resource Development Program (IHRDP).
“This also came to the ministry and it was in national planning before and then later on shifted to Ministry of Economy but there was a clear move during these years when budget was being done that all SME related program should be under one umbrella again this makes sense because just to avoid duplication etc.
“We had the Northern Development Program also come under the ministry and things like roadside stalls also progressed.”
With the standardised roadside stalls initiative Mr Ali stated it had started in May 2018 with the first set of roadside stalls being launched in Vakabalea, Navua.
“The aim of this project was to provide roadside vendors with structured stalls that are safe and hygienic and was able to withstand adverse weather conditions, so it was built a roadside stall with cyclonic conditions in mind.
“And for the 2017 and 2018 financial year 20 permanent and 10 portable stalls were constructed around Viti Levu.
“So this was during this year and since then we have subsequently increased the numbers and it has gone over to Vanua Levu as well.”
