Bula
PARLIAMENT may set up a new bipartisan committee to tackle the rising drug issue in the country, Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration, Pio Tikoduadua told Parliament on Friday. That’s the big news on the front page of The Sunday Times for November 26.
In the second story, like any government, the current government will stumble and make mistakes, said National Federation Party president, Parmod Chand while speaking at the NFP’s Working Party meeting in Lautoka yesterday.
And in the third story, suki consumption will be included in a survey set for next year.
Synopsis
The revelation that Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) cost Fiji’s public sector $591 million in lost productivity in 2019 attracted attention.
That, according to Dr Devina Nand, Director of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Health, is an underestimation though.
It meant Fiji could be losing millions more from NCD-related conditions suffered by the national workforce.
Dr Nand was a panellist at the TOPEX 2023 convention in Nadi, which ended yesterday.
She spoke about loss of productivity due to NCDs.
From the $406million in 2015, we’ve jumped to the $591m mark, she noted. “That’s direct and indirect losses,” Dr Nand said. “That’s money that can be invested better into development. So it’s an opportunity cost to the development of any nation.”
The statistics, she said, were underestimations due to the way Fiji reports diseases.
“These only report the public domain and doesn’t take into account the private sector,” she said.
Highest estimates showed that NCDs directly cost the public sector $192m in lost productivity while indirectly costing a total of $399m.
As the conference came to an end, there were many talking points and takeaways from the two-day event.
Delegates learnt about what a speaker labelled as augmented reality.
It was about understanding and appreciating how AI works for instance and how that can be factored into businesses.
It was about appreciating what search engines could do in the greater scheme of things, and how relevant information could be tailor-made to raise the profile of companies in Fiji.
It meant engaging people who understood the intricate details about presence on various portals on the internet.
It was interesting how platforms like TikTok for instance were engaged in driving traffic and became search engines for some segments of the population. It showed versatility and broad interests on the web.
Ultimately what matters is how content is managed, and information disseminated.
Delegates got to appreciate wellness, and why diversity should be embraced and there was emphasis on inclusion.
How conducive is the workplace for the disabled for instance?
Empowering staff and using various role models mattered for different people in different ways.
There was attention on why the generational differences, from Generation X, Y and Z meant facing the reality of a different set of possible responses, and why it mattered to understand the Alpa Gen, of those born after Z.
The importance of data collection was highlighted as a point of difference as well.
Then there was emphasis placed on leaders leading with empathy, focusing on culture and committing to growth.
As the event ended last evening, there was hope for better understanding of factors that now surround the platform for doing business in Fiji, the promotion and marketing aspects, and the intricate webbing that surrounds the human resource factor.
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