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Chairmanship of G77 could impact on Fiji’s public service, says academic

Posted at 17:43 on 23 January, 2013 UTC

A New Zealand academic says Fiji assuming the chair of the G77 group may put pressure on its public service.

Fiji’s interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, last week assumed the chairmanship of the G77 plus China from Algeria.

The group is made up of 132 developing countries, and works at the United Nations to promote their collective economic interests.

A senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University, Terence O’Brien, says there will be some administrative and managerial responsibilities that will flow from becoming the chair.

“And that, I’m certain, will put some test, some pressure on Fiji’s bureaucratic structure, I would have thought. But in bidding for this, allowing their name to go forward, so to speak, they presumably took that into account.”

A senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies, Terence O’Brien