ACCESS to finance, capital, rising costs and capacity constraints continue to be the biggest factors in restraining growth among Pacific Island exporters.
This was highlighted in the Pacific Islands Export Survey Report 2016 released on Monday by the Pacific Trade Invest Australia.
The survey, commissioned by PTI Australia, reports the views 200 Pacific Island businesses from 12 countries operating in more than 30 international markets.
According to the survey, a major challenge for exporters is obtaining finance and capital with two and three exporters stating this as a concern being more prevalent for new exporters.
The same survey which was earlier conducted in 2014 found a large proportion of exporters faced difficulties in obtaining finance for either general (65 per cent) or exporting (63 per cent) activities.
The report also stated that while newer exporters were the least likely to have received some level of foreign investment (13 per cent vs 20 per cent total), they were the most interested in considering foreign investment (60 per cent vs 50 per cent total).
In terms of attracting foreign investment into the Pacific Island region, five key disadvantages of the region were identified by the participants.
These were high cost of doing business (61 per cent), poor transport infrastructure (55 per cent), Pacific Islands being too small (54 per cent), rate of return of investment too small (45 per cent), and political instability (41 per cent).
The report also highlighted other key barriers exporters face such as the rising fuel and energy costs (42 per cent), capacity constraints (34 per cent), government policies (26 per cent), labour issues (24 per cent) and ongoing effects from natural disasters in the Pacific Islands (23 per cent).
Meanwhile, the participants of the survey represent a diverse range of industry sectors, business size, maturity and annual turnover.
Supported Australian Aid and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, the Pacific Export Survey Report 2016 is the second biannual survey of Pacific Island exporters which provide a greater understanding of exporting businesses in the region.
