By RANOBA BAOA
A visiting senior representative of The World Bank has commended Government’s reforms saying it is the driver to grow Fiji’s economy.
The World Bank Southeast Asia Group executive director Dr Sundaran Annamalai, was in Fiji for a two-day visit to talk with major financial and economic stakeholders.
His responsibilities cover 11 nations, including Fiji.
Dr Annamalai’s visit was to have better knowledge of where Fiji’s economy lies and plans of progress to better the economy.
“I think that the reform initiatives will strengthen the economy further,” he said.
“There’s a lot of very important works being done on the reform side and this is something that I will take back when I go back to the bank.”
Discussions
Meanwhile, areas of discussions were centred on economic developments that would grow the economy like infrastructure, renewable energy to name a few.
He visited the Reserve Bank of Fiji on Tuesday and met with the Ministry of Finance yesterday.
“There’s a lot of optimism in terms of the economic performance which they (Reserve Bank) covered very well from the last global crisis.
“They gave a very good overview of the economy and the kind of changes that has happened over the last couple of years.
“Our discussions (with the Ministry of Finance) include an overview of macro-economic and fiscal policy issues which is also a regular consultation that the bank does with our client countries.”
Plans for consideration
The visit follows the engagement of The World Bank with its client countries to discuss on specific areas of needs which representatives take upon returning to their head office.
“I know that you have your medium term plans and there are needs in the various infrastructure areas,” Dr Annamalai said.
“When the bank starts to engage with the Government here, because we want the bank to be able to support what is the priorities of the client countries are.”
Preliminary steps
In light of this, Permanent Secretary Finance, Filimoni Waqabaca said the discussions was in line as far as assistance from the bank is concerned.
“These are some of the preliminary steps that we normally take as we work towards projects that the World Bank would be able to assist us in.
“But this is the first step and further consultations to get a better understanding of what has happened, where we would like to progress towards.
“If there are certain projects that Government would like to go into for infrastructure development there are certain assistance that World Bank can consider.”
The Permanent Secretary Finance, Filimoni Waqabaca (left), and The World Bank Southeast Asia Group executive director, Dr Sundaran Annamalai. Photo: RANOBA BAOA