Nausori Town Council CEO, Akhtar Ali, hopes to develop the Nausori township to attract more people to Fiji’s first town.

Mr Ali spent the past two years as the CEO of Nasinu Town Council, where he was involved in the development and the reestablishment of the municipality.

And he hopes to do the same for Nausori, despite the challenges the new role may present.

“I need to reestablish the Nausori Chamber of Commerce, where you have all the business stakeholders. The council works together with the business stakeholders to grow the municipality. You can’t work separately to develop the township,” Mr Ali said.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, but we will be able to provide that consistent type of development here. My focus is to get the whole town cleaned first so it can attract people.”

“I want to help, guide the business leaders of the chamber, to come together. Most of the business people maybe working differently, so once they come together, they will realise the business needs and requirements and we can support them.”

Mr Ali added he needed to improve the services of the council so that the ratepayers would show confidence in their leadership.

On the development of the Nausori municipality, he said from the Nakasi-Nausori corridor, there was a boom in developments.

“If we’re going through a phase of economic development in Fiji, infrastructure becomes very critical to support that economic development.

“And infrastructure development along the corridor is booming,” Mr Ali added.

He said, during his leadership in the Nasinu Town Council, Government had assisted the development of the municipality and also would do the same for Nausori, like all other townships.

“It’s been only two weeks for me here (Nausori), and with no special administrator, I know Nausori can achieve great things.

“Like the old Nausori bridge, we can do many things there, maybe opena kiosk where people can sell. But for that we need to work together with the Fiji Roads Authority.”

Nausori was incorporated a town in 1931.

ν Mr Ali was part of the Ministry of Health from 1987-2000 as a senior Environmental Health Officer, building inspector, health inspector, quarantine officer, enforcement officer, prosecution officer and pure food inspector.

He also worked at the Fiji Electricity Authority from 2001 – 2014 as HR Development Specialist where he managed environment, safety, risk management, quality, productivity, business excellence and leadership – Human Resource Department.

And the Nasinu Town Council as the CEO from 2014-2017.

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