Prime Minister and Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, yesterday announced a major breakthrough for members of the iTaukei community who wanted to buy-back their ancestral lands, but had difficulties with the buy-back scheme.
Commodore Bainimarama said members of the iTaukei community who were involved in the land buy-back scheme initiated about two decades ago, but had difficulties paying off the cost of land to Government because they did not have the means, could now breath easy as Government has found a way forward for them.
The Prime Minister said that all the land that were part of the buy-back scheme are gradually being deposited into the Land Bank which is part of this Government’s land reform initiative. These lands will be leased to investors. The lease monies will help off-set the cost of the land. Once the full cost of the land have been recovered by Government, the land will automatically revert to the traditional landowners.
The Prime Minister said the arrangement will not only benefit the landowners, but it will also benefit the investors and the country as a whole as it will bring about more socio-economic development for the landowners, security of tenure for the tenants, and greater peace and stability for the nation.
The first lease from lands under the buy-back scheme was issued today to Kaiming Agricultural Investment Company Limited of Navua.
Company Director Kaiming Qiu was thankful to Government for facilitating the needs of both landowners and the farmers.
“With this lease, I hope to put in more infrastructure, employ more people and export more to help the economy,” Mr Qiu said.
He said agriculture is becoming a very lucrative market internationally and Fiji’s needs to look at ways to harness the potential of this resource-based industry.
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