BUSINESS ASSISTANCE
Investment Fiji ready to help investors: Strong
We are ready to assist foreign investors on their journey here.
This was assurance of the newly appointed Investment Fiji chief executive officer Craig Strong in an interview with SunBiz.
As alluded to earlier by Investment Fiji’s chair Jenny Seeto, he joined at a crucial time during the uncertainties caused by COVID-19.
One of Mr Strong’s first objectives in the role is leading Investment Fiji through a strategic reset. “I come to Investment Fiji with over 20 years’ experience in the private sector,” he said.
“So, I bring a very pragmatic commercial lens to the organisation. “We work to increase Fijian companies’ international success by helping them boost their global reach and build capability as well as attracting High value investment that benefits all Fijians.”
Strategic reform
Mr Strong said there are several elements to the Strategic Reform and there are two key stages:
(1) COVID19 recovery strategy and
(2) a sustainability strategy
However, the two are inherently interlinked.
He noted that was critical that as the Fijian Government’s international business development agency, they anchor their activity on the right strategic platform. “Promoting Fiji is not hard, we have a great trade and investment product.
“What we will do is adopt a more prescriptive, targeted and planned approach to growing Fijian companies’ success internationally and attracting investment that benefits all Fijians.”
Advise
He said Fiji have so much to offer. “Our proximity to regional Pacific Island markets and the larger markets of the USA, Australia and New Zealand.
“We have great air and shipping connectivity making us perfect as a regional supply chain hub.” In terms of promoting domestic investment amongst Fijian com
panies, he said: “The opportunity exists for us to again be far more prescriptive in how we match international capital and investors with Fijian companies and opportunities.
“The process of the strategic reset will identify key pillars of our work such as our people, our processes and how we rethink and deliver the customer experience.”
In terms of plans for local exporters, Mr Strong said: “We have a series of programmes planned in the coming months to assist in building capacity and preparing our export clients for international trading.”