URBAN DESIGNER RETURNS HOME TO BUILD NEW CITY

August 3, 2004

Labasa born and bred master planner John Achari has returned home to Fiji to assist in the development of the Yaqara Studio City.

Educated in Labasa at All Saints and Labasa College and in universities in New Zealand and Germany, Mr Achari has over eighteen years experience in urban design, architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning projects. He has worked extensively in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Finland, England, the Pacific and South-East Asia with some of the leading firms and on numerous urban design projects.

Mr Achari took up his position of master planner with Paradise Entertainment Limited for the Yaqara Studio City site this month.

"I am delighted to be returning home to Fiji to be part of one of the most exciting project developments in the South Pacific, if not the southern hemisphere," said Mr Achari, "This opportunity is a master planner's dream project."

Located on the north west coast of Viti Levu the Yaqara Studio City site has been set aside by government and landowners for the purpose of attracting practitioners from the audio visual industry to Fiji.

"It's fantastic to see such an important initiative move forward to the first stage development phase after many years of planning and design.

"As an urban designer I am thrilled to be involved in such a creative project with best practice environmental design and privileged to be part of such an important and visionary initiative that will undoubtedly bring enormous long term benefit to the people of Fiji," he said.

Mr Achari said that the development of the Yaqara Studio City and the audio visual industry generally was of special significance to the young men and women of Fiji and to its social, cultural and economic sustainability.

"So many of us come out of the learning system wanting to live and work in Fiji but are forced to further our careers offshore.

"The reversal of the so called 'brain drain' is of critical importance to developing countries such as Fiji and it's initiatives such as these that provide a robust platform for this," he said.

Mr Achari's role in the project is Design Manager including preparation of the overall master plan and concept design.

Media Contact: Tracey Singh, Tahila Avenue tel: (679) 3323716