[Source: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji]

The Ministry of Infrastructure is grappling with retaining skilled engineers.

Permanent Secretary Taitusi Vakadravuyaca points out that the Ministry faces stiff competition from the private sector, where professionals often have more experience and expertise.

This he says is a common challenge across the entire government.

“Yes we are finding it very difficult to recruit for example senior engineers or very experienced engineers in the country. We are dealing with engineers that are coming out of from universities who need to go through graduate training program or graduate engineers program in order to be trained to go through the process of engineering and become decision makers.”

Vakadravuyaca says they are trying to reestablish public works department and have advertised for technical positions.