THE 2025 New Zealand-Fiji Business Council (NZFBC) Fiji Business Mission officially kicked off this week with a renewed sense of urgency and ambition.
With more than 30 delegates representing diverse sectors — from engineering and construction to agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and digital services — the mission underscored the need to deepen trade ties between New Zealand and Fiji.
Speaking to The Fiji Times during their networking cocktail at Albert Park in Suva on Monday, NZFBC president Chandar Sen offered a detailed look at the opportunities, challenges, and strategic goals shaping the mission.
At the heart of it lies a bold objective: to help push bilateral trade to $2billion by 2030, a target initially set a few years before COVID-19 but put on the backburner during the pandemic then resurrected by the Prime Ministers of the two countries during their first official meeting in Fiji last year.
For the NZFBC, achieving that goal will require more than optimism — it demands action on persistent and structural barriers that continue to hinder ease of doing business in Fiji.
The business mission began with a powerful address from Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica, who pointed out the “myriads of opportunities” across investment sectors.
According to Mr Sen, the speech set the tone for the week, energising delegates and stakeholders alike.
“Almost every delegate here saw an opportunity relevant to their business,” Mr Sen said.
He was quick to point out that opportunity alone doesn’t build trade — execution does and that’s where barriers are to be removed.
One of the mission’s central messages is that Fiji has no shortage of potential projects but lacks the scale and resources to deliver many of them on its own.
This opens the door for New Zealand firms to step in as partners, not just as investors but to help build a model that emphasises collaboration with Fijian companies, capacity building and long-term economic development.
Among the most pressing challenges identified by NZFBC is the lack of direct international flights to Suva, our main administrative hub.
Mr Sen said while business was primarily conducted in Suva, most international flights land in Nadi, forcing time-consuming ground transfers that delay productivity and increase costs.
“We spend an entire day travelling just to conduct a few meetings,” Mr Sen said.
“Despite a $60million upgrade to Nausori Airport, we still don’t have reliable international access.”
He observed that while Fiji Airways held the rights to operate direct flights into Suva, it was not doing so consistently and called for either improved scheduling or market liberalisation — opening routes to other airlines like Air New Zealand, Virgin or Qantas.
Another major stumbling block is the outdated implementation of the Double Tax Agreement (DTA) between Fiji and New Zealand.
Despite being one of the oldest treaties of its kind for New Zealand, the agreement is inconsistently applied, leading to cases where Kiwi companies are taxed twice on the same income.
“One of our member companies was hit with non-resident withholding tax for services performed in New Zealand but sold to Fiji,” Mr Sen said.
“After sustained advocacy, we secured a $2million refund from the Fijian Government — but these shouldn’t be battles businesses need to fight.”
He says NZFBC is now pushing for a modernised and clearly defined tax protocol that ensures income is taxed only once and credits are fully preserved when dividends are repatriated.
Additionally, he said Fiji’s chronic skills shortage and rigid immigration processes are also slowing down project delivery.
Many New Zealand businesses looking to operate or invest in Fiji struggle to source local expertise, or secure timely work permits for overseas talent.
“I’ve lost five engineers in three months to overseas migration,” Mr Sen noted from his own business experience.
“You train them and they leave — we need to bring in people, and we need the visa process to be fast and transparent.”
While he acknowledged recent efforts by the Fijian Government to address this issue, including the appointment of a dedicated Immigration Minister, Mr Sen emphasised that “speed and certainty” are essential if Fiji is to remain an attractive investment destination.
Despite ongoing talks of digital transformation, Mr Sen was blunt in his assessment of Fiji’s current digital infrastructure: slow and insufficient for modern business operations.
“I tried to watch the All Blacks game on Sky Sport — two minutes in, it froze. That says everything,” he said, pointing out that even basic mobile coverage is unreliable along key highways like Nadi to Suva.
He further stressed that “digital bureaucracy” only hindered efficiency and questioned why electronically generated business reports still incur an $11 fee, while the same documents are free and instant in New Zealand.
“We talk about digitalisation as an enabler — but at this point, it’s become a cliché unless we deliver real outcomes,” he said.
Mr Sen also noted that despite these barriers, the mission isn’t all talk and some NZFBC members have already set up operations in Fiji, including manufacturers accredited to global standards who produce high-tech components locally before final assembly in New Zealand.
Other sectors showing strong interest include agriculture, aquaculture, renewable energy, and BPO services, Mr Sen said.
He highlighted innovative proposals such as Agro-PV projects, where solar energy and farming coexist on the same land, maximising land use and sustainability.
“There’s genuine momentum — we have members at all stages of investment, from scouting to full-scale manufacturing,” he said.
He said NZFBC wasn’t about handouts or charity.
“We don’t want to do aid — we want to do trade,” he said, adding the council’s mission was to improve living standards through wealth creation and commercial partnership.
He called for more government engagement, better procurement transparency and greater recognition of the Fiji-New Zealand diaspora as an economic bridge between the nations.
“If Fiji can modernise its systems and open the doors wider to business, the $2billion target won’t just be achievable — it’ll be inevitable.”
