PM speaks at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Malta

The government sees the development of our national infrastructure as the key to unlocking our economic potential.

Speaking for the first time at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Malta, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says it has been a mainstay of the comprehensive reform program the government has put in place to transform our economy and unlock the potential of the Fijian people.

Bainimarama says they had to upend the existing political order that had kept Fiji in a state of perpetual division and arrested development since our independence from Britain in 1970.

He says the revolution cost Fiji its place in the Commonwealth for five years and fractured some of the traditional relationships.

But he says the government makes no apology for it because Fiji has emerged from that process of radical change to one of genuine opportunity for every citizen whatever their background.

Bainimarama says we have a parliament elected on the basis of equal votes value instead of being skewed through an electoral system that divided Fijians on an ethnic basis.

He says we now have a common and equal citizenry and common identity.

He says every citizen is a Fijian for the first time and our constitution also provides for an unprecedented range of social and economic rights that are empowering every Fijian apart from the usual civil and political rights.