Vanua Levu will soon see road upgrades on its roads this year and Chinese Ambassador Zhou Jian says this is part of their commitment to the Government to help with development in Fiji.
Speaking at a press briefing in Suva, Ambassador Zhou said the road upgrades was just a small part of the work of development that China will do to help Fiji.
“We are pushing forward the feasibility study of the roads upgrading project on Vanua Levu and Chinese experts will come to conduct research in Fiji this month.”
“This project includes the renovation and building of roads extending 82 kilometers and 22 bridges, connecting 61 villages and covering 15 primary or secondary schools and 3 institution of higher 24 education. Once finished, the project would greatly help with the transportation and infrastructure on Vanua Levu.”
“In addition, China stands ready to deepen cooperation with Fiji with regard to Juncao and rice planting. We would like to help Fiji to be an exporting country of relevant agricultural products from a importer, be a producer of agricultural products from a consumer, so that Fijian people could have enough food with bulging wallet.”
Ambassador Zhou also said that with growing tourist arrivals and the continuous work between the two countries it would be ideal to have direct flights between the two countries.
“We should promote tourist cooperation and open the direct flight between mainland China and Fiji as soon as possible. China has a huge market of outbound travelling, while Fiji is well-known for its beautiful scenery.
“The two countries have huge potentials on tourist cooperation. With the recovery of outbound travelling in China, the number of Chinese tourists to Fiji has reached 66% from April to 25 September in 2023, compared with the same period before 2023.
China has again become Fiji’s fourth biggest country-of-origin of international tourists. I believe as there are more flights between Nadi and Hong Kong, and the two countries speed up the opening of a direct flight, there would be more tourist groups coming to Fiji and making contributions to local economic development,” Ambassador Zhou concluded.
