Fijian national, George Mow (pictured) has been appointed the new head of the Pacific Islands Tax Administrators Association (PITAA).
He replaced another Fijian national, Mrs. Koni Ravono who has been in the position for the last six years.
Mr. Mow was formerly the Manager International Relations at the Fiji Revenue and Customs Services (FRCS) and officially started in his new posting today, 3 October.
He has worked for FRCS for more than sixteen years and has experience in tax policy, international relations and statutory reporting and monitoring.
While he was selected by the PITAA Executive Committee, his appointment was formerly endorsed at the annual heads of tax administrations conference that was held at the Tanoa International Hotel in Nadi on 22 August 2022.
“I am honored to be selected to take up this position considering the critical role PITAA plays in the region as the focal point to discuss challenges, share knowledge and experiences for its members in the region,” Mr. Mow said. “We are living in challenging times especially as all nations are still recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the different sizes of tax administrations in the region, we have common challenges some of which need Pacific solutions. The need to collaborate and work together amongst the members and with our donors and partners is more important now than ever.”
Meanwhile, Mrs. Ravono said that with his experience from FRCS, Mr. Mow would settle well into his new role.
“FRCS has been the backbone of the establishment of the PITAA Secretariat in Fiji six years ago,” Mrs. Ravono who once led the audit division in FRCS said. “Even before the establishment of the secretariat, FRCS was handling the secretariat work which allowed us to gain experience and knowledge needed for PITAA work.
“It has been a challenging six years, but I am happy that we have achieved a lot as a group, as members of PITAA. We are grateful to the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre (PFTAC), which was instrumental in the setup of PITAA and they continued to assist in much needed training and capacity building in the Pacific.”
Mr. Mow is the second Head of Secretariat for PITAA since its establishment in 2017.
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