The Fijian diaspora living overseas have been urged to make use of their intel­lectual capital and the expertise in making Fiji a knowledgeable economy.

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum requested this at the FANCA 25 – Silver Jubilee banquet dinner at the Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa on Tuesday night.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the fra­ternity presence in the country this week, is bound by the fact that they or their parents were born in Fiji; thus Fiji is the connection.

“Most of you all have been really well become as good in your own countries. We have recently seen many of your descendants or chil­dren excel,” he said.

“We also want to take this oppor­tunity for you to now tap into the intellectual capital and the exper­tise you have. Those skill sets we necessarily need.

He said they’ve had sessions on what they call knowledge-based economy and how they could grow.

As a liberalised economy, he said a liberal approach for citizenship has brought back Fijians to invest and build holiday homes to escape the winter in their countries.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the Gov­ernment encourages reproducing those types of opportunities for them to rekindle the connection.

“That ability to build capacity in our people is required, so we’d love to tap into that knowledge and we want to create new avenues,” he said.

He added that some also may want to actually help schools as they wanted good infrastructure in the digital space.

“There’s a network of schools where you may want to help them. There are numerous opportuni­ties in collaborating with what the Government is doing in terms of its development agenda,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

The FANCA (Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America) Federation was set up in Nadi on October, 1994.

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