Sivaniolo Lumelume 
The Permanent Secretary for iTaukei Affairs Pita Tagicakirewa, has confirmed that the government is working on regulating traditional knowledge and cultural expression.
Tagicakirewa highlights that there is a bill already in place, and the Ministry will be conducting consultations on the bill in November and December, respectively.
The Permanent Secretary says that the Ministry is working very hard to accomplish this, even though there is a lot of work to be done.
“Fiji has an intellectual property regime; we have the copyrights act, and we have the trademarks act. To strengthen that regime, there will be the Traditional Knowledge and Expression of Culture Bill. If there is a successful conclusion to the consultation, it will be taken to parliament, and parliament will enact that bill into law.”
Tagicakirewa says that identifying traditional knowledge is not an easy task, and it took 10 years to compile the bill.
According to Tagicakirewa, the traditional knowledge and cultural expression bill is now with the Solicitor General’s office before the consultation begins in November.
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