COVID-19 lessons

MAYBE this COVID-19 will wisen our government up. Instead of increasing trade with China for economic reasons we should be diversifying our imports.

This will make sure the Fijian economy is not overly reliant on China and can ride these trade shocks and economic crashes that these kinds of pandemics cause.

Didn’t N1H1 teach us economic lessons ... or the swine flu? Or any other pandemic in recent memory?

Trade with China has increased by over 27.2 per cent in the past three years alone. That is worrying for a small and developing nation like Fiji. This shock that China and its trading partners will feel will be tenfold in Fiji because of this over-reliance on Chinese imports.

Cheap is not always the best our dear leaders!

Economic stimulus package are always fraught with pitfalls so the import imbalance and over reliance on China needs to be balanced and addressed by this government.

That is the only way Fiji survives the upcoming global recession that economists around the world are now predicting with this pandemic.

Godspeed Fiji!

AVIN K NARAYAN Gold Coast, Australia