SIX hundred micro and small business owners from Sigatoka, Nadi and Lautoka received $1000 grants from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to help their businesses. The assistance under the Micro and Small Business Grant (MSBG) scheme was handed over to the happy entrepreneurs at Koroivolu Park in Nadi yesterday by the Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism Faiyaz Koya. He said the grants was the beginning of a larger economic platform the Government was initiating in the Western Division. “One of the Fijian Government’s key strategic priorities is to increase the participation of our (medium, small and micro enterprises) MSMEs in global value chains or GVCs,” he said. “The MSBG initiative will contribute towards our endeavour to fulfilling this goal. “The Government is laying the platform whereby opportunities for forward linkages for our MSMEs will be available through the completion of Government’s manufacturing and services zone here in the Western Division.” According to the minister, more than $19 million had been handed out to more than 19,500 people since 2015.
