DEPUTY Prime Minister and Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad held discussions with India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Shri Hardeep Singh Puri in Bangaluru, India yesterday.
Their discussions were centred on how India could support Fiji in its energy transition with the transfer of technology to improve energy efficiency, develop more renewal energy sources and build climate-smart infrastructure.
Mr Puri assured Prof Prasad of India’s support towards the housing sector with a focus on smart, low-cost construction technology and potential involvement of the Indian private sector in any future Public-Private Partnership (PPP) housing projects in Fiji.
Prof Prasad also participated in a high-level ministerial session on “Strategies for a sustainable and decarbonised future”.
During the discussions, he highlighted the urgent need for global action on decarbonisation if the world was to genuinely fight issues such as climate change which was having devastating impact on the lives and livelihoods of people in small developing island countries such as Fiji.
He also called upon the developed world to support affordable technology transfer in assisting countries with smooth and economically feasible energy transition. Prof Prasad will be travelling to New Delhi tomorrow and will have a number of high level bilateral engagements with the Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and Minister of State for External Affairs Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.
He is also expected to meet the Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman.
