The Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama receives the cheque from Fiji Pine Group of Companies executive chairman Faiz Khan (left) yesterday. Photo: RANOBA BAOA
By RANOBA BAOA
Fiji Pine Limited managed to pay off its $2.4 million Government loan in just three months. It showed signs of outstanding recovery since the reforms following the company’s previous mismanagement issues.
The loan was used to pay off a 28-year old debt from the European Investment Bank.
In a brief press conference yesterday, Fiji Pine Group of Companies executive chairman, Faiz Khan, officially handed over the cheque to the Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama.
The exchange was made at the Prime Minister’s Office with the Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum also present.
Mr Khan said Government had stepped in to assist Fiji Pine when the debt was due payment.
“We have been able to clear a debt that has been on our books for almost three decades,” Mr Khan said.
The company had undergone a number of unfortunate incidents under previous management.
However despite ‘plagues of the past’, as Mr Khan puts it, the company is very optimistic about moving forward.
“We have been plagued by a lot of burdens of the past. And if you look at our debt levels, most of the debt that was taken in the 80s and 90s are still sitting in our books,” Mr Khan said.
“Now, we believe that we are in a comfortable position and we can start focusing on the future with much more firm aggression, I guess, rather than simply trying to look at the future in a staggered fashion, so that’s the significance.”
PM commends Fiji Pine
The Prime Minister commended the state-owned enterprise for having re paid the loan within a matter of three months.
“I can’t recall another occasion when a state-owned enterprise has paid off an outstanding amount to Government so quickly,” Commodore Bainimarama said.
“It’s a great credit to the Board, management and workers and a clear sign of the success of our reform programme at Fiji Pine”, he said.
Additionally, Mr Khan noted that over the past two and half years, the company has been able to pay off about $25 million debt.
“What we have done over the last two-and-half odd years is pay off about $25 million of debt.
“So that’s the level of debt-financing we have done and another $25 million of that about $17.5 million has gone into the principal portion of the debt and the balance of $7 odd million is the interest portion of the debt.
“The significance of this is we’ve been trying hard, and been doing well but had been burdened by the past,” he stated.
Mr Khan confirmed the company still has loans on its books dating back to previous management and former governments.
“We have some loan from Government still sitting in our books, about $12 million,” he said.
Future outlook
In the meanwhile, as far as the future is concerned, the company is doing a number of capital projects for a sustainable future and investing around $350,000 on this.
“One thing I’m really looking forward to is the upgrades of the toilets and showers and the canteen facilities that we have in our factory sites,” he said.
“For too long, we neglected our human assets. We are nothing without our workers and a large part of the credit belongs to them.”
The workers will be provided with subsidised meals and the company will be improving their general work environment with new toilets and shower facilities.
“This is one of the most exciting priorities on our list of current work”, he said.