New Economic Intelligence Unit on Way: A- G
The Ministry of Economy is setting up an Economic Intelligence Unit. The Acting Prime Minister and Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum noted this while addressing the Leadership Fiji 2017 participants on Fiji’s Economy. Mr Sayed-Khaiyum had earlier highlighted this new establishment in his 2017-2018 Budget Address in Parliament where he said that there are still cartel retailers in Fiji.
He said then: “So two or three suppliers of a particular product can agree not to sell a product below a particular price. “This is price-fixing, Madam Speaker. It has no place in a free economy, and our Government will no longer tolerate companies that want to make enormous margins through greed. “They hold back the economy. They hold back growth. They hold back the ability of ordinary Fijians to spend in other areas. We are providing additional funding to the Fiji Commerce Commission, and FRCA will establish a unit to enforce the law.
“The Ministry of Economy will also establish an Economic Intelligence Unit to be able to monitor that.”
He told the Leadership Fiji group there are a lot of big companies in Fiji that aren’t actually retailers directly to consumers, they are sole agency for products.
“So that’s what we are trying to address. We need more competition. “MaxVal-u the supermarket advertising quite vigorously ... they have decided to be the first supermarket to now actually react to this. It’s good for consumers because the prices have actually gone down.”