The Ministry of Employment, Productivity and International Relations yesterday launched their Annual Corporate Plan for 2017 to 2018.

Along with the launch the ministry also unveiled their new logo.

Speaking to staff members, minister Jone Usamate said the plan will serve as an indicator on how to challenge the status quo.

He said one of the critical aspects of the plan is to generate employment and ensure it grows.

“For a long time we have only focused on making sure people are being paid the minimum wage, and we attend to complaints of payment of annual leave. It’s not only decent and productive work that we should focus on, it is decent work and employment growth,” he said.

“How do we grow employment? We need to relook at what we are doing because we have set ourselves a huge vision. We need to grow employment.”

Mr Usamate stated that the ministry has already seen good developments in the country’s eight years of economic growth and the drop in unemployment rate.

“Our unemployment rate dropped from the 2010-2011 survey. It used to be 7.1per cent. In the last survey of 2015-2016, unemployment is now at 5.5per cent. That’s a drop but it’s a challenge for countries like Fiji,” he said.

He mentioned that the overall long term plan of the government is to reduce unemployment to four per cent over the next five year plan.

“In the National Development Plan, the government has a draft plan which talks about reducing the unemployment rate to 4per cent. That’s a great and ambitious target. You set yourself big targets and then you go after it.”

“Two thirds of the people that are employed are either in subsistence or informal employment. And informal employment you know there is always complications in terms of people not getting paid on time and so forth. So that’s always a challenge for us from moving employment from informal employment to more formal employment.”

Mr Usamate urged his staff to study the corporate plan and live and breathe it to ensure it roots itself in the ministry’s performance and values.

“Let this plan be the banner that binds us together and make us rise to great heights.”

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