Fiji Country Profile
Country Profile Fiji"Country Profile Fiji" of the ILO InFocus Programme on Qualifications, Knowledge and Employability and International Labour Office
This country survey for Fiji is part of the ILO funded ILO research programme "Employment of Persons with Diseases - the Impact of Legislation", which seeks to improve the ability of local authorities in select Asian and East African counties to effectively enforce disability policies.
Based on a systemic review of existing disability education and job creation policies in select Asian and Pacific markets (Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Japan, India, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Thailand), the aim of the proposed law is to explore how these policies work, assess existing enforcement frameworks and make suggestions for improvement.
This country report describes the most important regulations of Fiji's disability law. Wherever possible, a brief overview of the transposition of the law will also be given, on the basis of a collection of documentation resources, a field trial by a counsellor and responses from Fiji delegations to a project consultation in Bangkok on 17 January 2003.
This can be seen in connection with the WHO consultation paper "Employment of people with disabilities - the impact of legislation (Asia and the Pacific)". Report of the Project Consultation, Bangkok 17 January', ILO 2003.
Fiji: Country profile. - PubMed
Fiji is a country made up of 300 South Pacific Isles, the biggest of which is Vitu Levu, to which the capitol Suva also belongs. There are 700,000 inhabitants on the island, 50% of whom are Indians, 46% Melanesians and the remainder Chineses or Europeans. In the early 19th century, the British began to send and produce goods and in 1874 annex the Isles as a food supply for which they dispossessed the country and the Indians as farmhands.
Besides linseed oils, coconuts, wood and even more, sugars remain the biggest exports. Produced goods, foods, fuels and chemical products are exported, and the public indebtedness is over 200 million dollars. The rate of disinflation is 20%; 200,000 persons are out of work and the level of general impoverishment, with the exception of the city' s population. In 1970 liberation was given to replace superseding democratic rule with the rule of the army, currently that of Colonel Rambuka, who declined to hand over power to a democratic regime.
In the face of a shrinking taukei economic system and the powerful politics of the taukei regime, the Indians, who were merchants, artisans and red cats in the later days of colonialism, emigrated in great numbers.