New Zealand’s newly elected coalition government will be looking at ways to do more business with Fiji and to generally lift its commitments to the Pacific region.
Speaking at a media conference in Suva over the weekend, New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said there were “a whole lot of things” that the two countries will likely be looking at going forward, among them, doing business with Fiji.
“There are a whole lot of things that we have to go forward looking at item after item, including remittances from New Zealand, potential future considerations about visa-free, et cetera,” Mr Peters said.
“We’re going to work on that and then there are all those projects where we can do far more in terms of business with Fiji, Fijian business itself and to buy and increase imports, even if Fiji is a preference, to expand their (Fiji’s) economy while advancing ours.
“It’s a very interesting circumstance that we’re very aware of as a country and when it comes to our balance of payment, the part where we’re doing most handsomely is in the Pacific.
“And that means we’ve got a responsibility to play our role in terms of our aid program and our foreign affairs approach going into the future.”
Most recent data on New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and trade website stated that two-way trade between New Zealand and the Pacific was worth $NZ3.62 billion ($F4.97b) in 2018.
Of that, $NZ2.17b (F$2.98b) was the value of goods and services exported from New Zealand to the Pacific while the value vice versa was $NZ1.45b ($F1.99).
New Zealand also spent 60 per cent of its Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding in the Pacific islands, which equated to a spend of around $NZ1.33b ($F1.83b) from 2018 to 2021.
Fiji was the first stopover for Mr Peters’ inaugural official overseas visit this term and he held separate high level meetings with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna, ahead of New Zealand’s new mini budget scheduled to be delivered this week.
