REVENUE management at national and community levels to ensure economic growth in the local mining sector was one of the key issues discussed at a recently concluded three-day regional workshop in Nadi.
The Pacific Symposium on Managing Extractive Industries in Pacific Island states attracted national and regional leaders and stakeholders from the mining, land, finance and environmental sectors.
Permanent secretary for Lands Tevita Boseiwaqa said while extractive projects such as mining were being carried out in some countries in the Pacific, including Fiji, the economic effects of these projects were yet to be seen.
"This is happening in the national and community level," said Mr Boseiwaqa.
"The managing authority at the national level is something that we will discuss because we have seen that in some countries, you have extractive developments like mining but it does not really reflect economic growth. The other one is the management system in the community level.
"They get their benefits for example, the mining leases and all of that and yet we don't see any improvement in their standard of living, particularly if we look at Fiji and I believe that it is also happening in other countries."
Mr Boseiwaqa said by the end of the three-day symposium, the Ministry of Lands and its stakeholders hoped to develop policies that would enable them to generate revenue for Fiji.
The symposium was organised by the United Nations Development Programme.
According to the UNDP, the extraction of natural resources such as oil, gas and minerals has led to a significant increase in revenue for a number of Pacific Island countries.
It says that while revenue earned has fluctuated over the years, the increase in revenue has not led to any significant improvement in overall human development outcomes.