Fiji is strengthening its push to become a regional hub for private and public partnerships, says Minister for Investment and Trade Manoa Kamikamica.
He said apart from its geographical location, the country provided an important link to smaller island nations where future investors could also establish businesses.
“We also have ambitions to be a regional hub of the Pacific,” he said.
“It is something that we have always aspired to be partly because of our geographical location and it means more opportunities, connecting us with our Pacific brothers and sisters.
“For the Coalition Government, we truly believe that if we continue to focus on being a regional hub, the rest of the region will rise with the benefits that come from becoming a regional hub.”
He said a prime example was the growth of flight frequencies by the country’s national airline Fiji Airways.
“I used to work for Fiji Airways when it was called Air Pacific and back then we were only doing three to four flights to Los Angeles.
“That was in the 1990s but now we are now doing dailies to the US.
“I suspect with the new capacity they’ve got to be looking at double dailies on some of those days which is very exciting.
“What that means effectively we can move passengers from Fiji to across the Pacific much faster, easier and much more conveniently.
“We have our domestic and regional carrier Fiji Link that can distribute people all over the Pacific.
“And that is just in transportation alone. We can create that sort of metro-hub and we can imagine the spinoff potential that could bring.”
