A 55-year-old Viseisei villager from Vuda, Lautoka is today counting his blessings after having 10 acres of his land commissioned under the iTaukei Land Development Grant.

This was commissioned by the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama yesterday.

Alipate Tavai, a land development advisor says counselling people on the rewards and importance of developing their land has paid off for him.

Mr Tavai’s work involved visiting families and assisting them on ways they could develop their land. One day he thought why not get involved in it too.

The Land Development Grant is the second project in Vuda and in the Western Division which will feature a subdivision prepared for eight residential lots amounting to $561,616.

Mr Tavai, who is from the land- owning unit, Tokatoka Nakelo from Vuda is the sole owner of the development.

He said as a resource owner, there was no need to only have upfront capital but easy access to capital to further develop resources.

He said under the development, the Government also assisted him with access to water, electricity and roads.

Prime Minister

Meanwhile, Mr Bainimarama said he cared about the progress and prosperity of all Fijians, therefore the Government had allocated resources for iTaukei land owners to support them with complete land development packages.

“Which means that the Government does everything from cleaning and leveling the ground to

subdividing the land and then ensuring connectivity to all utility services including electricity, water and brand new paved roads,” Mr Bainimarama said.

“Our 2013 Constitution be-stowed 91 per cent of all land in Fiji to the iTaukei for all time and inheritance that represents the greatest source of potential wealth in the country.

“While the protection of that land was steadfast, its stability to provide landowners in high lease returns was held back by years of under development.

“Cash does not grow on trees, it comes from land that is leased to generate money, for land owners it needs to be developed and then leased out at competitive market base rates.”

He said in other cases, due to the endless politicisation of land in the country, landowners avoided development out of misplaced fear.

Mr Bainimarama also congratulated Mr Tavai on the initiative.

“You have taken a step together with the Government to financially empower yourself, your family and your descendants,” he added.

“Your land that we have developed is a concrete symbol of economic prosperity. It is proof of what a Government can do when it partners with the people and it is an aspiration for iTaukei landowners nationwide.”

He added that as a father and grandfather it stirred his heart to think of the livelihoods the development would support.

A-G Calls On Fijians

Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is calling on all Fijians to con- sider what they can do with their land.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said there was a high interest from people living in the Western Division to develop their land.

“In this part of Fiji of course, we know tourism is very large, we have the sugarcane industry, we have a lot of people moving into this division also,” he said.

He said there was a lot of demand for access to 99 year leases in particular for residential leases.

“We are here to assist you, we are here to carry out the developments for you. You are not going to make yourself cash rich, but you will also be increasing the value of all the land around that subdivision.”

He also said it was critically important that the Government worked with landowners to advise them on selling their land for the correct valuation price.

The A-G also spoke on the current and future developments in the Western Division which included;

• A woman from Lauwaki, Lautoka was interested in developing 34 residential lots where she would be making in excess of $3million to $4million.
• In Wairabetia, 17 residential lots with a cost of $1.4 million, we’re currently getting the Wairabetia lot climate resilient, in other words, the cabling for the electrical cables will all go underground.
• Saweni, Patina Property Investments Limited, cost $1.9 million, 34 residential lots.

“We’re looking at the developer making at least $3million to $4 million, if not excess of that again that is being made climate resilient.

• Vuda two, there’s 15 residential lots, in Tavua there’s 34 residential lots, three commercial lots and that’s at a cost of $3.2 million.
• In Viseisei, 45 residential lots and currently undergoing some consultancy work on that.”
• He also mentioned Saravi where the lots were valued at $1.1 million.
• In Lautoka, 18 residential lots, currently at a cost of about $400,000, $500,000.

He added that the Western Division was seeing a hive of activity at the moment and the economy was expected to grow by in excess of 12 per cent and it was the time for developers to carry out investments.

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