Finance Minister Esrom Immanuel is attending the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Annual Meeting in Uzbekistan this week, a development that comes as Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has imposed a freeze on ministerial overseas travel as part of cost‑cutting measures amid Fiji’s ongoing fuel crisis. The ADB meeting began yesterday and concludes on Wednesday.
The trip was not publicly announced by government channels, unlike an overseas visit last month that Rabuka approved for Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection Sashi Kiran. It is also not clear from official sources whether Mr Immanuel’s travel is being paid for by the Fijian taxpayer or covered by external partners or host arrangements. At the time of publication no explanation had been issued to clarify the funding or the basis for the exception to the general travel pause.
Mr Immanuel’s presence abroad follows his absence from Parliament throughout last week. On Friday Speaker of Parliament Filimone Jitoko told MPs that the minister was “indisposed,” and announced that oral questions scheduled for the Finance Minister would be deferred to the next sitting on Monday, 25 May 2026. “Honourable Members, given that the honourable Minister for Finance, Commerce and Business Development is still indisposed, we wish him well… the following Oral Questions will be deferred to the sitting of Parliament on Monday, 25th May, 2026,” the Speaker said.
Attendance at the ADB Annual Meeting by a finance minister is not unusual: the forum is a key venue for discussions on development finance, macroeconomic policy and climate financing among member countries and multilateral partners. Nonetheless, Immanuel’s trip has drawn interest because it coincides with Rabuka’s publicly stated directive to curtail ministerial travel while the government manages fuel-related fiscal pressures, and because there was no formal notice of the delegation or its financing.
Ministers’ overseas travel has been the subject of public scrutiny before. In late 2025 the government disclosure of spending on a Fiji Day delegation overseas renewed debates over the cost of official travel, with previously published figures showing tens of thousands of dollars in total expenses. That backdrop has heightened calls from some quarters for clearer accounting when ministers travel abroad during periods of austerity.
Parliament will have an opportunity to question the Finance Minister once sittings resume on 25 May, when MPs are scheduled to pursue the deferred oral questions. In the interim, details about Mr Immanuel’s itinerary at the ADB meeting and any bilateral discussions he is scheduled to hold have not been released by the Finance Ministry.