Full Story http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=193094
THE Reserve Bank of Fiji has given commercial banks a tall order ù they must give 6 per cent of their deposits as loans to the agriculture and renewable energy sector.
Mr Whiteside added that with the uncertainty surrounding the sugar industry, there was great potential for growth in non-cane agriculture as well as large commercial agricultural ventures.
And the governor has also suggested ways in which the commercial banks could find viable projects in these sectors- through collaboration between local authorities such as Investment Fiji, local business councils, government agencies and foreign trade missions.
Fiji Today FijiTodays Open Forum Blog 
It would be helpful to have clarification on exactly what the renewable energy sector is and specifically what types of renewable energy are in mind.
The sugar industry was doomed from the day Vuaka took over government by force.
Sugar industry was doomed by the botched Mill upgrade & its demise was assisted by a dysfuctional board – inept senior management – & some idiot who negotiated an $80m + refit contract with a mutitude of Indian firms that somehow achieved the remarkable feat of leaving the mills in a worse condition than when they started. And strangely enough all this took place when the industry was enjoying record comodity prices. Only in Viti…
The sugar industry shot itself in the foot when it supported the coup and the military junta. It will never recover. Look at the so called ‘sugar minister’ – total waste of space. Handing out lollies at the rakiraki market while the sugar industry collapses under his misguided watch. Anyway, the i-Taukei farmers could always join the military? That’s the only growing industry in coup coup land.
Correct Spf – & look what’s happened?
What in heavens name possessed him into believing he knew anything about growing – refining & marketing sugar in a global marketplace?
He’s a bati ni wai gau?
And don’t – whatever you do dimiss or overlook Chaudhry & Khan’s roles in this avoidable & expensive debacle. As for Taukei farmers – don’t you think it would be far better having them employed in a disciplined fuctional military than out terrorising Viti’s remaining Indians?
Lending to these sectors is the FDB’s job – not the commercial banks’! The fact that the FDB is being bypassed to cater to these sectors is a sign that 1. The FDB is in a very tight liquidity spot itself, and; 2. The Regime is either not funding the FDB into lending to these sectors, or is not able to fund them into it.
Hence the easy option of commandeering other peoples’ money to lend into your pet projects, after you’ve already blown most of your own funds through poor decision-making yourself!!
Make Taukei Commander of the military to prevent anymore coup.
The FDB is probably streched as thinly as teh FNPF is – the Regime simply tells them to invest in what THEY want without any accountability or reasoning.
Only in a dictatorship does this happen – because in democracies the governments have MONEY to spend on development – they don’t need to force Banks to do it. Bunch of idiots – all they know is the forceline way.
It’s all very well to put all the excessive liquidity to work and concoct all manner of loan packages, but at the end of the day it is the farmers who have to be willing to take the risk and it doesn’t look like they want to.
What the farmers really want/need is/are hand-outs and that’s just impossible right now as the queue, thanks to mother nature, is miles long.
FDB already lends to agriculture and renewable energy only…no more for personal purposes
rishab_nair100,
Speaking of renewable energy, you may find the following analysis interesting:
The analysis may not be valid for Fiji, but even so, it does show the importance of doing careful studies before investing funds in energy systems.
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