Fiji’s future economic growth was firmly anchored in exports, then Minister of Finance, Josevata Kamikamica said while presenting the 1990 National Budget, a statement that marked a defining shift in the country’s economic policy direction.
An article published by The Fiji Times on December 1, 1989, reported Mr Kamikamica delivering the budget in Parliament, saying that Fiji had to aggressively reorient its sector policies to compete in an increasingly open and competitive global economy.
Central to the government’s strategy was deregulation, which he described as a key pillar of economic reform aimed at improving efficiency and productivity.
He said consideration would be given to phasing out price controls to allow market forces to operate more effectively, while import licences on agricultural goods were expected to be removed by mid-1991 and replaced with a uniform tariff of no more than 50 per cent.
Mr Kamikamica stressed that Fiji needed to attract overseas investment into new industries, improve workforce skills and productivity, and create an environment that encouraged citizens to remain in the country rather than seek opportunities abroad.
While acknowledging that cutting government expenditure was difficult, he said cost competitiveness was essential if Fiji was to succeed as an export-orientated economy.
Public enterprises and statutory bodies were told to fully adopt the user-pay principle and stop relying on taxpayer’s funds.
Fiscal duty on a wide range of locally manufactured goods was set at 50 per cent, with plans to progressively reduce rates over five years, including a proposed 10 per cent cut in the 1991 Budget.
The 1990 Budget, Mr Kamikamica said, was designed to lay a sound foundation for Fiji’s long-term growth, with tax reform, wage restraint aligned to international competitiveness, and entrepreneurship identified as critical to national economic expansion.
