USP professor positive about Fiji industry reforms

An economics professor at the University of the South Pacific says institutional reforms of Fiji’s sugar industry are well overdue.

Cabinet has moved to dissolve the Sugar Commission of Fiji and Fiji Sugar Marketing, but will transfer the responsibilities of the Sugar Research Institute to the Fiji Sugar Corporation.

The head of USP’s School of Economics, Biman Prasad, says he supports the interim government’s move to abolish some key sugar bodies.

He says this marks a step in the right direction to rationalise the industry.

“I think there was a heavy institutional setup and that is why I said that this attempt by the interim government to abolish institutions like Sugar Commission and Sugar Marketing company, which could be easily undertaken under the Fiji Sugar Corporation er I think that is a good move. And it would rationalise things a little bit better and perhaps save some costs that the industry has been incurring and actually burdening the farmers much more than what it should have been doing in the past.”
USP Economics Professor Biman Prasad

source: Radio New Zealand International