Fiji is in dire need of qualified and experienced town and country planners.

Department of Town and Country Planning, Acting Director Mohammed Ziar says manpower in his Department does not meet the demand for development in Fiji.

“In Fiji the planning profession can be viewed as a scarce skill-set. Take for example the Department of Town and Country planning whereby we only have seven qualified town planners. This speaks volume on the need to build on this profession as planners help guide development that needs to be sustainable and in line with the existing planning policies in the over-arching national development of our country”.

 Ziar highlights the majority of local institutes do not offer relevant courses, which is a major drawback and the Department has only hired seven qualified town and country planners in the last 10 years.

Meanwhile, the Fiji National University recently introduced a four year planning programme to fill the gap.