Fijian Civil Service
Suva, Fiji – Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Fiji Office in collaboration with Korea Shipping Port Logistics Institute hosted a ten-day online training program from 23 August to 01 September on Capacity Building of Maritime Policy and Port Administration.a
A total of 15 trainees participated from the Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport (MCTTT), the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji, the Fiji Ports Corporation Limited and the University of South Pacific.
The training program aimed to enhance competitiveness of the maritime industry by building capacities of maritime policy development and port administration in Fiji. KOICA handed over 15 laptops and other accessories to the Ministry of Civil Service to be distributed to the participating organizations, which will assist in and ameliorate their daily operations.
Speaking during the opening ceremony, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Civil Service, Ms. Susan Kiran acknowledged the contribution and support by KOICA in upskilling the government officials and encouraged the participants to make the optimal use of this opportunity to broaden the abilities and ultimately enhance the skills and efficiency in the maritime and port administration services.
Also speaking at the opening ceremony, H.E the Korean Ambassador to Fiji Mr. Young-kyu Park highlighted that the Korean government has been offering both short and long-term training opportunities to Fijian government officials every year. To date, almost 400 Fijian officials have been to Korea to attend the training, and among them 32 have received their master’s degrees’ scholarship. He further added that the Korean government is proud to provide such training programs, and this will ultimately contribute to achieving SDGs in Fiji.
At the closing ceremony, KOICA Country Director Mr. Kapchae Ra highlighted that the objective of training program is to share Korea’s experience with partner countries whereby Korea transformed from aid recipient to donor country. He further added that KOICA Fiji Office will continue to support capacity building for the Fijian government officials and staffs of public entities through technical cooperation such as providing training and volunteer programs.
Representative of trainees, Ms. Faranisese Kinivuwai (Director for Transport/ Government Shipping Services at MCTTT) expressed her gratitude to KOICA Fiji Office for providing a highly informative and illuminating opportunity to the participants to enhance their skills and efficacy in the maritime and port administration services.
In addition, KOICA Fiji office will organize similar online training program from 25 to 29 October to support capacity building for Fijian government officials on the Global Women’s Leadership Training Program in Marine Bio-Resources Information System. KOICA will discuss new training programs for 2023 with relevant Ministries in the field of climate change, health and digitalization.