Dear Mr Prime Minister,
In late February, I emailed your office and the Minister of Finance about a bold new vision for Fiji’s financial future.
You announced the National Economic Summit in April 2023 to reshape Fiji’s future, and I requested a discussion with you to share my vision for how Fiji could break its intergenerational cycle of poverty, low economic growth, high debt, and reliance on offshore funding.
I wrote offering my assistance and didn’t get a response.
Either the message wasn’t passed to you, or you both received my letter and didn’t care.
I’ve written this open letter so that the people of Fiji can hear about this new vision.
They can then choose whether to continue with the status quo of intergenerational poverty, or whether Fiji should try something more visionary to be prosperous.
I read that your Government allocated $360,000 for a two-day Summit for 500 delegates at a 4.5 start hotel to “workshop” ideas for Fiji’s economic future.
Mr Prime Minister, you don’t need to waste taxpayers’ money to wine and dine delegates.
Here is the simple solution to Fiji’s economic woes for free: Stop focusing on land-based, low-income industries, and replicate what other resource constrained nations did to exit poverty.
My background
I grew up in Fiji and understand what the people are going through.
People I care about still live there and have to endure the difficult economic situation.
I was the head boy at Yat Sen Secondary School in 2001.
I moved to New Zealand a few years after Fiji’s last coup d’état.
I’m an award-winning Fellow of CPA Australia, a certified fraud examiner, certified financial services auditor, and an accounting and finance professional member with the Florida Institute of CPAs.
I have a Certificate in Financial Markets (with Honours) from Yale University, an Ivy League university.
I’m pursuing a Master of Science in Professional Accountancy with the University of London.
This is administered by UCL which is ranked the eighth best university in the world.
I have 18 years of global financial services experience, including eight years in capital markets with the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX), three years at PwC, and a number of years running my own accounting and consulting practice.
Fiji’s multigenerational poverty crisis remains unsolved
Your time is precious, so I will be direct.
Fiji is in a multigenerational poverty crisis that remains unresolved.
Structural deficiencies in the design and implementation of economic policies have had a devastating impact on the quality of life for many residents.
I’m concerned that the long-term effects of this crisis could be devastating and action should be taken to address the underlying structural issues, before it’s too late.
The significant reliance on tourism which continues to be touted as the “saviour” of Fiji’s economy demonstrates a serious lack of imagination.
Fiji is naturally blessed with warm weather, sandy beaches, and pristine marine life.
Apart from building the infrastructure for these industries, Fiji has inherited the rest.
Tourism makes Fiji dependent on short-term spending from visiting tourists, rather than longer-term investments where capital can be deployed locally to increase the standard of living for residents.
Tourism employs thousands of locals.
However, few of them earn wages over six figures.
Most work low paid jobs with minimal prospects of progression.
Their income doesn’t significantly increase over their working life beyond CPI adjustments.
Outsourcing has also been identified as a growth sector for Fiji, but have you considered why a business would outsource?
The answer is simple, to save money.
While outsourcing may lead to more jobs, it perpetuates Fiji’s low-income economy.
As a result, most people in Fiji don’t escape the intergenerational cycle of working for a low wage.
During their working life they don’t create multiple income streams or invest to support their retirement.
This is a sad existence. Generations of Fiji residents, past and present, have been deprived of the ability to develop their full human potential or experience the best that life can offer.
Let me show you another way.
A better vision of what Fiji can achieve.
Resource constraints didn’t limit the Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands have similar resource constraints as Fiji.
According to data from Wikipedia, Fiji is 69 times larger than the Cayman Islands, and has 11 times more people than them.
Yet the Cayman Islands is able to generate five times more GDP per capita than Fiji.
Even though the GDP for the Cayman Island is 2.5 times smaller than Fiji’s, it generates this without any income taxes, capital gains taxes, and corporation taxes.
The Cayman Islands achieved this because of their political stability and financial innovation which attracts global investors.
Singapore’s remarkable transformation — Fiji’s missed opportunity
Both Singapore and Fiji have ethnically diverse populations and had challenges due to racial tensions.
Singapore was a third world country postindependence in 1963.
Fiji became independent in 1970.
In one generation, Singapore made the remarkable transformation from a third world to a first world country.
Fiji is 25 times larger than Singapore.
Yet Singapore is able to generate 56.7 times more GDP annually and 9.67 times more GDP per capita than Fiji.
How did Singapore achieve this?
There were three key reasons, according to Kishore Mahbubani, a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National
University of Singapore: Meritocracy — Singaporeans elected leaders based on merit.
They shunned nepotism. Lee Kwan Yew, the leader who oversaw Singapore’s transformation for over 25 years, was the top student at Cambridge University and Harvard Kennedy School.
Pragmatism — Singapore embraced capitalism as well as elements of other systems leading to financial prosperity and a high quality of living for its residents.
Honesty — Post-independence Singapore had no natural resources.
Per capita income was $500 which was similar to poor countries in Africa.
Crime, riots, corruption and ethnic tensions were high.
The government prioritised security and had a zero-tolerance approach to corruption.
One man transformed Singapore from a tiny colonial outpost into a thriving global economic hub, in just one generation.
The one thing on your mind
If there is one thing on your mind Prime Minister, it is your legacy.
History remembers you for 1987. Your precedent had a detrimental financial and social effect on Fiji for decades.
You can be remembered as the leader who brings economic independence to Fiji.
A Fiji that is truly free and doesn’t need overseas aid.
A place where you don’t need 600 staff at FRCS collecting more taxes from people who have less.
A self-sufficient and prosperous nation with world-class infrastructure and a high quality of living.
A place where foreigners want to live and to move their capital to.
Will you be Fiji’s version of Lee Kwan Yew?
Or will you be the man with two coups and three opportunities to lead Fiji to economic freedom, who failed to lift his nation out of poverty?
Let me help you
I believe Fiji cannot address its structural challenges without external assistance because locals lack the depth of capital markets experience to tackle these issues.
Let me help you.
Together, we can create a new vision of what Fiji can truly become in a much shorter time.
Please don’t let this opportunity pass by again.
Let’s talk.
Your team has my number.
• JONATHAN MAHARAJ is the founder and CEO of Aurora Financials, an award-winning accounting and business consulting firm. The views expressed are the author’s and are not necessarily the views of The Fiji Times. Mr Maharaj can be contacted at info@aurorafinancials. com.
