PORTAL TO EASE BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS

An information portal has been developed by the Government to ease business transactions in the country.

It includes information on starting a business, construction permits, paying taxes and other Government services.

The bizFIJI portal is a one – stop-shop that would make business much easier, said the Minister for Trade, Manoa Kamikamica.

bizFIJI is being developed to integrate key agencies processes into one portal called ‘Integrated Licensing and Permits Approvals System’.

We have commenced the work to digitalise the processes for agencies to obtain its license, said Mr Kamikamica.

He said 25 digital services were expected to be rolled out soon.

‘Bottlenecks’

Government has established an Investment Facilitation Committee to address complaints coming from investors.

Mr Kamikamica has since brought together Investment Fiji and his ministry to look into agencies working in silos.

He revealed the matter at a business breakfast, organised by the Fiji Commerce and Commerce Federation, on Wednesday.

“We bring them to discuss and deliberate issues and find the utmost best solutions to solve them, for Fiji to grow and diversify the economy,” Mr Kamikamica said.

BSP Life, British American Tobacco, Investment Fiji, Water Authority of Fiji were part of the dialogue to name a few.

Digital divide

Technology, he said, needed improvement to ensure the efficiency of the digital services.

It has since become a priority in order to bridge the digital divide.

In Fiji, 95 per cent of people have access to a 3G, 4G or 4G+ network.

Fiji has the lowest cost of mobile data in the Oceania region and fourth cheapest in the world where 10GB of mobile data costs $1.50 USD (FJD$3.36), said Mr Kamikamica.

“That means, the cost of doing business digitally is low,” he said.

“We are undertaking a feasibility study to set up a second cable landing station which will provide domestic and regional redundancy in connectivity.”