Provident Funds respond to change

PROVIDENT Funds needed to bal ance their roles of responding to immediate challenges and working toward long-term goals, according to Fiji’s Finance Minister Josevata Kami kamica.

Addressing world delegates at the twelfth meeting of the International Social Security Association in Suva, Kamikamica said the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) was the single largest source of long-term funds for the country, with the amount of savings it mobilised fast approaching $1 billion.

He said that infrastructure, public utilities and housing schemes had been boosted, and funds through the Fiji Development Bank had helped industrial and commercial development.

However, “urgent current needs” in the form of members’ desire to buy housing had led to interim partial withdrawals before retirement. The Fund’s original goal (to provide for the workers’ old age) needed to be re emphasised, he said.

In a paper he later presented to the

seminar, FNPF General Manager and Chief Executive, Lionel Yee, said that Provident Fund investments had, on the macro level, improved infrastructure through better roads and communica tions, more jobs through hotel develop ments, and better medical facilities through government development loans.

On the micro level, members’ housing had been improved by availability of long-term finance at affordable rates.

“This aspect alone must stand out as one of the most important social devel opment programs where provident funds operate,” Mr Yee’s report said.

Mr Kamikamica said FNPF was looking at effective use of public relations to promote effective services to members and employers, and a separate voluntary system for domestic workers on a differ ent basis. It would also do comprehensive studies on the possibility of extending the pension choice to women who have withdrawn on marriage and who con tinue to work for long periods with the intention to work till the retirement age, he said.