INVESTMENT Fiji is actively collaborating with investors for 254 projects across various sectors in its bid to reach $3billion and eventually $4billion trade target, says chief executive officer Kamal Chetty.
“I won’t talk about how long it takes to get these projects started, or I won’t talk about how fast we can get it started, but in terms of interest,” he said.
“We are currently working with 254 projects across different sectors, about 59 per cent of our domestic investors, 41 per cent foreign investors, and it also has got investment from New Zealand.”
Mr Chetty said 29 investors from New Zealand have indicated their interest in tourism, real estate, renewable energy, transportation and agriculture in Fiji.
“We’re currently working with 10 projects from New Zealand worth about $609 million. These are in tourism, real estate, and BPO sectors.
“These projects are not interest, but they’re already getting their approvals, and the necessary approvals in order to start construction. These are some of the projects. I won’t really go into details of the names, but this is the interest from New Zealand.”
In terms of increasing the trade base, Mr Chetty said there were a lot of Fiji exports ultimately creating an imbalance in the middle.
The lack of investment growth and increased focus on trade promotion may also be a contributing factor to the imbalance.
Mr Chetty called for more investment-led export growth.
“I thought to just highlight some of the sectors that will be potential for growth, food and agri, RCT, manufacturing, renewable energy, tourism.
“These are the projects we’re working on in the tourism sector. Will potentially grow the relationship. We’ve got about 62 projects in different areas, and I think New Zealand, as you can imagine, is an important market.”
Me Chetty said there were 12 food security and export diversification projects aimed at growing the relationship between Fiji and New Zealand.
“Manufacturing is another one,we’ve got about 13 projects, and I think that we’ll also be exporting to New Zealand, and there’s a potential impact on the relationship there.”
