The Pacific Island of Fiji has elected a new Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, who took office on December 24, and the good news is – he is reportedly pro-Bitcoin.
Fiji, a nation made up of over 330 islands and located in the Pacific Ocean, elected a new Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, who took office on December 24. The news was shared by Lord Fusitu’a, a Tongan noble and a former member of the Tongan parliament. Lord Fusitu’a said that he explained to the newly elected PM “how Fiji can do Bitcoin legal tender like Tonga” and hinted that could be two “BTC Legal Tender Bills for the Pacific in 2023.”
A new pro-#Bitcoin friendly Prime Minister in the South Pacific.☀️🌊🏝️
Fiji 🇫🇯‘s newly elected Prime Minister @slrabuka.
Let’s go 2 for 2 – BTC Legal Tender Bills for the Pacific in 2023 👊🏽💯🇹🇴🇫🇯
— Lord Fusitu’a (@LordFusitua) December 29, 2022
Cointelegraph reports that Lord Fusitu’a explained to them that “The new PM is definitely pro-Bitcoin” and quotes Fusitu’a as saying:
He asked to meet with me which we did via zooms since last year to walk him through step by step, how he could adopt bitcoin legal tender.
Tonga has its own plans to implement Bitcoin as a legal tender and reportedly has legislation in the works which could go live as early as Q2 2023. Tonga started initiating its plans to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender soon after El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law came into effect.
Bitcoin Would Benefit Pacific Islands
Both Fiji and Tonga stand to gain a lot from adopting Bitcoin with respect to remittances. Both countries face similar economic and developmental challenges given their location and history. Fiji reports strong growth in terms of financial inclusion recently, but just half of the female population has access to bank accounts making Bitcoin a brilliant tool to improve remittances and aid in banking the unbanked. Bitcoin Magazine reports that remittances sent to Fiji accounted for 11.33% of the country’s GDP in 2021, while in Tonga the situation is even more severe – remittances accounted for a massive 45.5% of Tonga’s GDP over the same period.
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