Fijian Holdings Limited (FHL) today announced a decision to award Dux prizes for four Fijian Secondary Schools, namely Queen Victoria School, Ratu Kadavulevu School, Adi Cakobau School and the highest amongst the other Fijian Secondary Schools to be notified by the Ministry of Education.

Announcing the decision today, FHL Managing Director Mr Sitiveni Weleilakeba said that Fijian Holdings Limited is keen to be associated with education at secondary school level for the first time. FHL is renowned in Fiji for its’ financial success and our shareholders have benefited directly from this success both in dividends, in which FHL had paid out over $31 million, as well as consistent growth in shareholder value. In a small way, this award reflects our focus not only to share our success with our shareholders but also to make more positive contribution to the education of our children.

“As you know FHL’s primary objective is to enhance indigenous Fijians’ participation in business and we firmly believe that these awards will help in some way towards this goal,” Mr Weleilakeba explained. According to Mr Weleilakeba, education is the most effective means of competing with other ethnicities in the commercial world. “At present FHL has a Management Training Scheme targeted at graduate level, and these awards will broaden the reach of FHL’s involvement in the area of education, training and development”, he said.

The prizes are four new IBM Labtop Computers, with 1.8GHz Processor, 256K Ram, 20GB Hard Disk Space and DVD-Rom facilities. These computers will come ready to use with Windows XP Professional and Office 2003, a Carry Case and 1 year service warranty. The total cost of the prizes was $12,000.

The four Secondary Schools were represented by the respective Schools’ Principals together with the Chief Education Officer – Secondary. Mr Suliasi Lutubula from the Ministry of Education expressed their appreciation to Fijian Holdings Limited and said that these prizes should be very useful to the recipients by equipping them with tools necessary to take on the challenge of higher education.

FHL intend to monitor progress of these students through their higher education and may assist in developing their careers. Mr Weleilakeba said that FHL hopes to continue these awards in the next few years, but cautioned that any decision on future prizes would be determined by the FHL Board.