News

PSDI on 7 May 2024 supported the Ministry of Public Enterprise (MPE) in Fiji to hold a 1-day corporate governance workshop for board directors, senior executives, and company secretaries of public enterprises and statutory bodies.

The workshop was attended by over 100 senior leaders from more than 20 of Fiji’s public entities, including Fiji Airports, Post Fiji Pte Ltd, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Pte Ltd, Water Authority of Fiji, Land Transport Authority and Tourism Fiji.

Fiji’s Permanent Secretary for Public Enterprises, Parmesh Chand, opened the workshop and stated that “with an increasing focus on corporate governance in recent years, the role of each and every one of [the attendees] has become extremely critical in ensuring that companies and statutory bodies operate in a responsible and effective manner, and that it is delivering value to its shareholders and other stakeholders.”

The workshop aimed to provide participants with a deeper understanding of good governance principles, the different roles of management and the board, financial and risk management, strategic planning, and the duties and responsibilities of directors, board secretaries, and officers.

This follows similar Corporate Governance workshops held by MPE in 2023 and supported by PSDI. The workshops are designed to support recently appointed directors and senior leadership to succeed in their new roles. Many recent appointees of MPE have come through a new, skills-based selection process that was developed with PSDI assistance in 2019.

PSDI supports state-owned enterprise governance across the Pacific by assisting in the development, review, and implementation of legislation that secures SOEs’ commercial mandate, supported by transparent and skills-based director selection processes. PSDI also provides technical support and training for SOE monitoring and governance.

Photos courtesy of the Government of Fiji.