Acting Prime Minister, Attorney General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum says ensuring that the United Nations Millennium Development Goals are met is of major importance to Government.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum made the remarks while welcoming senior officials from various United Nations organisations to Fiji at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva last night.

He said Government was very much engaged at different levels with the UN agencies based in Suva.

“Some are more engaged than others but there is no doubt that we have had a lot of sharing of information and collaboration between UN agencies,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said it was critical for Government to be able to co-ordinate the level of collaboration not just between the UN agencies but with other bilateral development partners.

He said some of them were of course represented by respective governments here and were able to work together with the Fijian Government to ensure that they were able to meet those targets.

“At the end of the day, all of us here are concerned about meeting those goals and I think in order for us to be able to meet those goals in a very effective and efficient manner, and cost effective manner there is need to have a good level of collaboration,” he said.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum also spoke about the effects of climate change and how severe Tropical Cyclone Winston wiped out a third of Fiji’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said Fiji was lucky because it had partnerships with organisations such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the United Nations.

He said through this Fiji was able to get back on its feet a lot quicker.

“We were also saved by the fact that most of the tourism industries were not damaged.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations Resident Co-ordinator Osnat Lubrani acknowledged Government and other diplomats who organised the event.

“This is very special for us because through the leadership of Fiji over the past few years, bringing and supporting the other Pacific Islands and to really have a voice at a global level has been so important in particular the climate change issue,” Ms Lubrani said.

Ms Lubrani said the Pacific needs were no longer ignored and Fiji played a critical roles as this year Fiji was co-chairing the UN Oceans Conference and COP23 and the Pacific was out there.

Edited by Ranoba Baoa

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