INVESTMENT RECOVERY

AUSTRALIA IS FIJI’S LARGEST INVESTOR

Australia leads the pack as the top investor by country in Fiji, followed by China, New Zealand and the United States of America.

India sits at fifth place in this ranking, Investment Fiji chief executive officer, Kamal Chetty said.

Tourism still leads the sectorial charge, with 600 additional rooms to be created in Fiji over the next two years, he told the Top Executive

Conference 2022.

Outsourcing, manufacturing, food and agriculture, and healthcare, were other leading sectors noted by Investment Fiji.

When broken down, each of the top five sectors received heightened interest in the order of:

Tourism: traditional, sport and medical

Outsourcing: business process, information technology and knowledge outsourcing.

Manufacturing: Clothing, footwear, and apparel and accessories.

Food and Agriculture: Cropping (including kava), fisheries, and breweries and distilleries.

Health: Pharmaceuticals preparations, medical and botanical, and dental.

The outsourcing sector will soon cater for 1400 more seats, Mr Chetty said.

Ongoing investment

Six companies reported ongoing innovation investment interests in Fiji, namely:

Leaf Capital Investment Limited,

Fibre Networking Engineering

Communications Pte Ltd,

Zekitek,

Duco Consultancy,

Pepper Advantage Hub, and

Energy Storage Industries Asia Pacific.

Fiji registered 63 projects valued at a collective sum of$124 million, Mr Chetty said.

Agriculture, forestry, financial intermediation sectors attracted a good number of investment projects, he said.

Mr Chetty called for more discussions on how Fiji could accept as workable the growing interest in innovative technology and how it was set to take centre stage in nearfuture development.

The need to foster debate on technology, data and infrastructure to gauge its relevance to Fiji was important as the ICT sector was set to take centre stage as the world’s next biggest investment.

Mr Chetty said policies needed to reflect preparations in this regard.

Fiji needed funding for breakthrough innovation given the lack of availability locally, he said.

Session two speakers at the two-day TOPEX conference 2022 held at the Shangri -La, Yanuca Island, Coral Coast, Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Ariff Ali, Tourism Fiji chief executive officer Brent Hill, KPMG managing partner Lisa Apted.