Fiji Met to Build Regional Training Centre with Japanese Funding

A Regional Training Collaboration and Awareness Centre is set to be built by the end of next year.

This was announced last Friday by Harish Pratap, Acting Director of the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS), during a Meteorological Observation Training at their Nadi headquarters.

The project, funded by the Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will cost approximately USD$12 million (FJ$24m). “We are working on a project called a Regional Training Collaboration and Awareness Centre,” Mr Pratap said.

Preparation

“At the moment, we are preparing the ground at the proposed site behind our headquarters.”

Mr Pratap added a Japanese team would visit Fiji from the 19th to the 23rd of this month to finalise the building’s structural design.

“We expect our ground preparation to be completed by 2024, with construction starting either at the end of 2025 or early 2026,” he said.

JICA assistant resident representative, Takashi OBA, confirmed the project’s preparatory phase.

“We are implementing a preparatory survey for the new grant aid project for the construction of the new training centre,” Mr Takashi said.

It is still in the preparation phase, and we are planning to construct the Centre in the FMS compound.”

Last Friday, fourteen participants completed the Meteorological Observation Training sponsored by JICA in collaboration with FMS.

The training focused on enhancing observers’ skills in data interpretation and weather forecasting.

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