INTERVIEW

Minister for Fisheries Commander Commander Semi Koroilavesau has so much to be thankful.

Setting up Captain Cook Cruises Fiji is one of the many achievements he was thankful to have endeavoured.

A lot of life lessons learnt while growing up in a village in Kadavu taught him to be strong.

This humble man registered Captain Cook Cruises Fiji Limited in 1987 as a partnership with a friend.

Below are excerpts of an interview with Commander Koroilavesau:

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I was quite fortunate because I was brought up in the village where we had a tough life. My father, mother and eight siblings.My father was the caretaker at Richmond Methodist High School, in Kadavu then. We used to plant our own food, so at a very young age, I was used to go going to plantations. At times I would look at my father and he looks at me and he knew that I was really tired and just managing to stay there.

He would say to me: If you don’t like this life, then you have to study hard and get out of the village.

If not, then this is normal for Fijian village life.

So that word stuck with me till today. I was educated in Kadavu from class one to six, moved on to Richmond Methodist High School from Form 3-4, then furthered my studies at Lelean Memorial School until Form Six then I joined the RFMF, went on to Fiji Navy. I was brought up with a tough upbringing.

I think that gave me some reflection on what to expect when boarding at Lelean, because it was very tough. And, well, this is the last lap I am going through. But it has taught me, that I just found myself to be in the right place at the right time.

I am married with six children.

Tell us abit about the inception of Captain Cook Cruises

It was by coincidence, back in 1987, when I met the owner of Captain Cook Cruises Australia, Trevor Haworth. He was building Reef Endeavour at the Government Shipyard in Walu Bay and we were rebuilding the Ramarama because it was a cabin cruiser for the Governor of Fiji.

We had a conversation and very well.

He was also a Merchant Navy Captain trained in the Navy.

The name of his company was also Captain Cook Cruises Australia, so I had named the company Captain Cook Cruises Fiji.

Captain Cook Cruises Fiji started in 1988, when I was still in the Navy.

At the time, there was a Fijian Affirmative Action in process and they were encouraging Fijians to start a business. So I asked Government then got on if I could start the business then even though I was in the Navy.

They said as long as it didn’t interfere with my role within government.

I was granted permission to start the business, I bought and operated the vessel Ramarama with the help of the Fiji Development Bank.

The operation then initially started with cruises from Suva to Kadavu. With the three-day cruises, it didn’t operate well so we moved the operations to Nadi.

Even though I was still in the Navy then and my business partner was running the business.

In 1993, the business started to expand, my time could not be divided between my role in the Navy and with Captain Cook Cruises. I decided to resign or retire in 1993, when I was still 36-years-old. My rank then with the Fiji Navy was Commander.

I started off as director of operations and then I became the managing director of the company. I then became the executive chairman of the board and also as the CEO of a company until 2014. So then I started to grow the business and it grew very well with the expertise from Australia and the partnership with the late Mr Haworth’s company. Captain Cook Cruises was one of the biggest cruise company in Australia at that time.

The company in Sydney had about 40 ships then.

So we had a really good support the system in the business. about

Tell us about your transition from running Captain Cook Cruises Fiji to being a Parliamentarian?

I’ve been in the business for over 22 years, and I thought I was getting a bit bored. I was planning to settle on Tivua Island with my wife.

I would live here and then go and work on mainland Nadi via a speedboat. I asked my family and then they encouraged me to enter politics.

They said, Why don’t you just go to politics?

In 2013, there was election for 2014.

So we appointed the general manager and he then took over running the daily business operations, and then I joined as a politician. And then my business partner then died after I entered Parliament.

He passed away and then he sold Captain Cook Cruises Australia, left Captain Cook Cruises Fiji to me.

Now I’m in partnership with one of his two children within the partnership, and that’s where we are today.

I think going into back into politics, after a a lapse of 20s from the government system was a little bit difficult because I had lost touch of how government is run.

And basically, Navy was very confined. I drove ships for a long time in the Navy.

When you run a business you can basically preparation for make decisions straightaway. But going back to government was very difficult to adapt, because there’s so much things associated with systems that we make.

On being in Government?

Before I became a minister, I was a Member of Parliament, I was the Government Whip.

When I was a Government Whip, I was also working at Captain Cook, and then travelling down for further meetings and also Parliament. That was not too bad.

One year after being a Government Whip, I became the Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations.

When the Ministry of Fisheries, was formed in 2016, I then was appointed to become the Minister for Fisheries. In 2017, it became an independent ministry. Because we had the Ocean conference in New York in June, 2017.

So at the time, we were running fully fledged as an independent ministry and it had its challenges, but we begun to get our foot in a lot of work.

As soon as I became a Minister, I was advised that I can retain my shareholding position.

But I have to leave every other positions I had in the business, so I resigned as a director.

So basically I don’t have any any say in the running of the business now.

I just observe and hope that everything runs well.

Once, you resign from your directorship then your say in the business is pretty limited.

I have my eldest son in the business, appointed as a director to replace me. In the company there are four directors.

Two directors are directly involved in the business while two are independent.

The transformation from being a paid or permanent paid worker as a civil servant to being involved in business or starting your own business is a transformation in itself.

Because I was getting good money (pay) as a Commander when I made the decision to work full-time in the business I lost all the perks as a Government employee.

I had to give up a lot of things, because the business was young then and just starting to grow.

But in the end, I was able to adapt when I’m moved again, to Government as a politician, I sort of felt the same thing also.

On being in business as an iTaukei?

I think business is very difficult for us as an iTaukei. I think we just need to really move out and rethink how we get into business.

I think I was more fortunate that I had a little bit of idea of business because I started in the village.

I had a lot of challenges because I did not come from a well-to-do family and going through school and then I started to work.

I sort of realised early on, what needs to happen for you to be independent and look after yourself and your family.

I think I was fortunate in that, in that aspect that I realise it for us iTaukei, it’s a little bit more difficult because of our traditional upbringing.

We seem to enjoy being grouped together and our family commitments. If you just re-adjust your life and restrategise yourself to your goal, you would be okay.

You lose a lot of people on the way because you don’t have much time and don’t have much things spare or to say around them but that’s a reality of business.

Business is tough. For the first two years in Captain Cook, I regretted leaving government.

I think my wife would support me in that after leaving Government to run a business, it was a big decision and I struggled really on the first two to three years.

At times I regretted the coming in but I just forge ahead try and work it out. And it worked out.

Tell us about the highlights of your career in politics?

The highlight is now. I think I have spent six years in politics from 20142020. This is the most difficult time because we are faced with a challenge especially with COVID.

It not only affects internally, but it’s affecting our source markets, tourism being 40 per cent of our economic drive.

So tourism gives us the revenue that we need to do our programmes within government.

Even though Fiji is COVID free other countries are struggling.

Tourism has to jump back and that is the only avenue.

We can recover in time and Fiji can adapt. I visit a lot of islands and I meet a lot of people who used to live in cities and towns and have gone back to their villages.

I highlighted this in the last Parliament sitting that there is a huge urban to rural drift.They have moved because that’s where the food is.

It might be a blessing in disguise the people going back to the villages but some villagers are complaining that they’re coming with their families and their friends and they have to share what they used to enjoy themselves. The highlight is what we’re going through this year especially with COVID. I’m hoping that by June next year, we will start to get the machinery for economic recovery going ahead.

If you look at the Government, its in to its second year, the performance has been good.

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