[Source: Investment Fiji / Facebook]

Several pressing challenges have hindered the ease of doing business in Fiji, including the need for infrastructure upgrades.

While making submissions before the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, Investment Fiji chief executive Kamal Chetty outlined key issues that have resulted in Fiji losing potential investments to neighboring Pacific nations.

Chetty says retaining and attracting efficiency-seeking investors is a challenge and also a concern for Investment Fiji.

“One is around immigration. I’m sure you’ve had a lot of complaints, but now we see it has improved a bit, most recently, but a few months ago it was a critical issue. The second one is around infrastructure, some of the places. So when an investor is developing a project, there are sometimes requirements for them to build the infrastructure. So the infrastructure has also become some critical challenges for some large projects.”

According to Chetty, access to land is another significant hurdle.

“It’s not so easily accessible, and these challenges are getting investors attention, so for example, we’re working on commercial agriculture projects. Usually they want a large parcel of land in one parcel. So that’s also a challenge, especially if you want to grow the agriculture sector.”

Chetty says that while they navigate through these challenges, the focus remains on creating a more conducive environment for investors.