The Singapore Corporation Enterprise is expected to complete the master plan for the Greater Suva, Nadi and Lautoka areas by mid of this year.

Local Government Minister Premila Kumar says once complete, the long term planning document will provide a blue print  to guide future growth uptil 2075.

Kumar says the master plan will identify the land use for agriculture, commercial, industrial, residential, tourism related activities and where it is best located.

She says following the completion of the master plan, work on the revision of the outdated  town planning scheme for municipalities such as Suva, Nadi and Lautoka  will commence

“If we have a master plan the area will be zoned. So that area, which area it can be zoned residential , it can be zoned commercial so investors whether local or foreign they can look at the scheme plan and they will know precisely that they can do business in this particular area without having  to apply for the rezoning so that’s how it will assist in speeding up the rezoning .”

Meanwhile she says the Department of Town and Country Planning had received 401 re-zoning applications last year.

Kumar says 166 re-zoning applications were received from the Western division while there were 157 applications from the Central Eastern division and 68 from the Northern division.

She says while this is a good indicator to gauge a number of land development based investment.

However she says there is a need to streamline land use and future growth of strategic areas in the country to ensure that both foreign and local investors are not subjected to cumbersome processes.