Seventy per cent of the population are young people, a fact not lost on the Fijian government which yesterday trained 29 new officers to cater to youth needs around the country.
The new civil servants who will today complete induction into the government mechanism have been reminded they are looking after ‘influential’ part of the population.
Minister for Employment, Productivity, Industrial Relations and Youth and Sports, Parveen Kumar Bala told the new youth officers they were vital to government objectives.
“Your position as Assistant Youth Officers is essential to the development of our clients – the Fijian youths, which will contribute to a better tomorrow for our society, our economy, and our country,” he said. “How we see ourselves will translate into how we present ourselves to those that we serve. If we see ourselves as servants, we are able to listen, we are humble, we value our clients the youths, we trust and we care.”
“As youth officers, you, better than anyone else will know that over 70 percent of our population falls into the youth demographic and they are an influential part of the Fijian population.”
The minister told the new civil servants who are being trained in Velelevu to behave in a way that makes the government “accessible and approachable”.
“For that to happen, we need to understand that youth are not there simply to be talked to and told what to do.”
