Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has requested the President of the Asian Development Bank for grant assistance from the Asian Disaster Relief Fund to support emergency response to Cyclone Tomas, which struck Fiji in March this year.

Commodore Bainimarama met with the ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda and briefed him on pertinent issues relating to Fiji and relations with ADB.

Commodore Bainimarama also thanked the Bank's President for support in the provision of $17.5M emergency loan for rehabilitation and reconstruction due to the flashfloods of January 2009.

The Prime Minister also updated the ADB President on Fiji's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a possible Stand by Arrangement and informed him that negotiation was progressing well and support was sought from ADB particularly in the implementation of the reform agenda in the area of Public Enterprise Sector.

The ADB President was informed by Commodore Bainimarama that poverty in Fiji has increased because successive governments had not addressed major structural challenges in the country and that the decline in the sugar industry due to the removal of preferential pricing policies from the EU and the decline of our garment industry due to WTO requirements further increased poverty.

Commodore Bainimarama also sought assistance from the Bank for project based assistance to address poverty in Fiji and full re engagement, so that further hardship faced by the people of Fiji due to natural disasters and continued climatic changes impacting the vulnerable Pacific Islands was addressed.

The Prime Minister thanked the President for his support and looked forward to him visiting Fiji in the near future.