PRESIDENT Ratu Wiliame Katonivere has encouraged the Fiji Institute of Chartered Accountants (FICA) to forge continued partnerships with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to help achieve economical growth and prosperity.
While officiating at the opening of the FICA Annual Congress 2024 at the Shangri-La Yanuca Island Resort in Sigatoka, he said collaboration between Government, private sector and the civil service was key to creating an enabling environment for business to thrive.
“This is an opportunity to revive the first 50 year, celebrate success and share lessons learnt and further guide the road ahead. We will agree that our nation’s unique strength lies in the notion of our living together in harmony. It portrays our way of life,” Ratu Wiliame said.
“It protects investment and creates an environment that is conducive to long term sustainable growth. National prosperity, however, goes beyond economic development, and depends on financial illiteracy.
“I am pleased to note that FICA’s vision actively pursues through these financial literacy programs. I commend the agencies that continue to implement the work in this area across the rural and urban communities at the same time and I encourage the sorts of financial literacy programs throughout the maritime islands and rural communities.”
Ratu Wiliame told about 400 accountants present at the Congress that developing their knowledge and expertise in MSME was crucial in achieving the nation’s objectives
“Shaping your specialist knowledge and expertise with the micro, small and medium enterprise sector is important to narrow the knowledge gap as well as elevate the standard in which micro, small and medium enterprises operates.
“We identify the scope, the people’s micro and small businesses, through their innovation, their resilience, they’ve survived from the with various degrees, the impact of COVID-19 and its variants not long ago.
“We must harness collaborative and mutually beneficial partnership with our development partners to foster regional growth and shared prosperity.
“Government continues to engage with donor partners on bilateral and multilateral arrangements to secure investments that support regional trade, develop sustainable industries and improve the quality of life for people.”
Ratu Wiliame told the participants that it was imperative to adopt the “thinking outside of the box mentality, promote sustainability and embracing innovation”.
