THE private sector can unlock green investment projects and de-risking them is very important.
And Investment Fiji chief executive officer Kamal Chetty added policy stability, sector-based plans and financial mechanisms were key in de-risking those potential private sector investments.
Mr Chetty made the comment while responding to a question from Muhammed Akhtar of KPMG Fiji during a panel discussion at the 3rd Conference on Climate Finance, Transparency and National Resilience in Suva yesterday, around whether there were considerations towards de-risking green investments to get more private sector involvement.
He said the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) and other financial systems were already looking at mechanisms that would allow for de-risking to happen.
“In my view, one is around policy stability, it’s very important for the investors. If you have certain policies around investment, you need to continue to have those policies,” Mr Chetty said.
He said it was also important to have a plan.
“A lot of these projects, it’s important to have a sector-based plan as a target, saying, this is what we want to achieve in terms of investment, so that provides a bit of ease to the investors, saying okay, there’s a policy plan that allows them to look at longer-term views around certain sectors.”
He added de-risking using financial mechanisms that supported the private sector was also another key factor.
“Fiji has a consistent policy and that’s one of the reasons we’ve got a lot of investments coming into the country,” Mr Chetty later told this newspaper. “But in the global context, in future if you want to continue to attract investment in certain green spaces or certain climate relevant investment, it’s important for you to have consistent policy.
“That’s an opportunity for Fiji and there’s a lot of work done already from the Reserve Bank and the financial systems and financial banks here, they are de-risking some of the investment.
“But I think as we plan, it’s become a more complicated topic; and it’s very important for us to find that opportunity and take it. It’s also an opportunity for the future for us to look at those investments,” he said.
L-R: Bank of PNG assistant governor George Rumints, Plan International Fiji Pacific Resource Mobilisation manager Amitesh Prasad and Bank of PNG manager Research Boniface Aipi at the 3rd Conference on Climate Finance, Transparency and National Resilience held at the GPH in Suva yesterday. Picture: TIMOCI VULA
Asia-Pacific Regulatory Centre executive director Joel Abraham and Investment Fiji CEO Kamal Chetty at the 3rd Conference on Climate Finance, Transparency and National Resilience held at the GPH in Suva yesterday. Picture: TIMOCI VULA
