The growing Fijian diaspora in New Zealand are being underutilised in building people to people relationships, says Deputy PM and Minister for Finance Prof Biman Prasad.
He said nearly a quarter million New Zealanders would visit Fiji each year – “that’s over 5 per cent of your whole population”.
“Over 70,000 Fijians live in New Zealand having migrated over the years. In fact, Auckland can boast to be Fiji’s fourth largest city – after Suva, Lautoka and yes, Sydney! On any given day during the year, Fiji hosts around 1000 New Zealanders – as tourists in our tourism industry, in our services sector. I think it is fair to say that we are not capitalising fully or even extensively on these vast people to people links,” Mr Prasad said.
A Government statement quoted the Minister urging his co-speaker and New Zealand Minister for Finance Grant Robertson to work towards full integration of both economies to help achieve this.
“It is my expectation that done right, we will grow the two-way trade between our countries to more than $1.5 billion – $2 billion by 2030.
“In fact, Minister, I want to propose a target of $2 billion in two way trade between Aotearoa New Zealand and Fiji by 2030.”
Mr Prasad expressed optimism with the resurging Fijian economy that grew 18.6 per cent in 2022 and anticipated a further growth of 8 per cent this year.
