The Small and Medium Enterprises has become a source of employment for 60 percent of the labour force.

Minister for Industry and Trade, Premila Kumar says in the last eleven years, 38,636 Fijians have been assisted through the Micro and Small Business Grants directly impacting the lives of one hundred and ninety-three-thousand people.

“The growth of our MSME’s means more jobs, more production of goods and services and more income to go around. It means we as a nation are moving forward together.”

She adds there are more than 24,000 formally registered SME’s in the country.

Kumar says through various initiatives they have been able to formalize a large number who were operating informally.