Fiji is seeing growing international interest from investors and former citizens looking to return and invest in the country, says Foreign Affairs Minister Sakiasi Ditoka.
Speaking about a recent visit to Australia, Mr Ditoka said Fiji was given a unique opportunity to present its investment potential directly to Australian trade leaders and state governments.
“I’m very grateful that the Minister for Trade for Australia, honourable Don Farrell had invited us over, myself, our permanent secretary, as well as the director for External Trade Ms Deepika Prasad, to go over and meet with them,” he said.
Mr Ditoka said the visit was significant because Fiji was the first foreign nation invited to participate in Australia’s annual meeting of federal and state trade ministers.
He said Australian officials wanted to hear Fiji’s views on trade relations, challenges and opportunities.
“So what they wanted to do was to ask us, how Fiji wanted to work with them as far as trade is concerned, whether there were challenges, whether there were issues, whether there were opportunities.”
Addressing the meeting in Melbourne, Mr Ditoka outlined the investment opportunities available in Fiji and said the response was encouraging.
“At the end of it we had a very positive response from all of the states, sharing that they were very eager to explore further for the future, as far as investments in all the areas that I’ve mentioned.”
He revealed that a “long pipeline of investments” was already being developed and said several projects were expected to come online from next year.
“There were some very solid investments that are already online, and we should see them come online maybe next year and onwards.”
Mr Ditoka also welcomed renewed interest from former Fijian citizens.
“We’re very thankful that a lot of our former citizens have found it exciting enough for them to come back, and they found the confidence to come back and invest in Fiji.”
He said the message to international investors was clear: “Fiji is safe and Fiji is open for business, and we have our doors wide open for them to come and invest in Fiji.”
