Venue: Holiday INN, Suva
His Excellency – High Commissioner of India to Fiji;
Invited Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen
Bula Vinaka and a very good evening to all of you.
I am indeed honored to be here this evening to officiate at your Business Meeting. I wish to thank the High Commissioner of India to Fiji His Excellency, Vishvas Sapkal for the special invitation to this important event – the first business meeting for 2018 organized by the High Commission of India.
Ladies and Gentlemen
India and Fiji are having the best of relations in various fields of cooperation and this was evident with the number of engagements organized as early as January of this year. From 31 January to 2 February, I visited India and attended the “South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange” in New Delhi. During the visit, I had the opportunity to meet the Honorable Minister for Commerce and Tourism of India, Shri Suresh Prabhu.
From 15 to 17 February, the Fijian Attorney General and Minister of Economy, Public Enterprises, Civil Service, Communications and Education, Honorable Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum also visited New Delhi and attended the World Sustainable Development Summit. During his visit, he also had the opportunity to meet with the Honorable Minister for Railway of India, Shri Piyush Goyal.
And from 10 to 13 of this month, the Fijian Prime Minister Honorable Voreqe Bainimarama attended the International Solar Alliance Founding Conference and Solar Summit in New Delhi, where he also met the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and the Minister for Railway.
Ladies and Gentlemen
This is a testament of the strong bilateral relations and international partnership and the strong cooperation between the two countries. I am delighted to state that Fiji’s relations with India is blooming and India is a committed partner in Fiji’s development process. Our two countries are now engaged in the process of building a modern, multi-faceted partnership and the historic visit of the Honorable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi to Fiji in November 2014, gave a big impetus to the existing bilateral relations with Fiji.
Ladies and Gentlemen
India has emerged as the fastest growing major economy in the world as per the Central Statistics Organization (CSO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is forecasted for continued growth of more than 7 per cent in 2016-17. Furthermore, India is the world’s sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and the third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).
There is a substantial trade disparity between the countries in the six years and Fiji on average has a trade deficit of nearly F$81.8 million annually in the period 2010-2016. While the volume of trade between the two countries does not reflect the high level of engagement that exist in other spheres, there is however, a huge potential to increase trade between Fiji and India.
In pharmaceuticals, a number of pharmaceutical products and medicines are imported from India, whilst a proposal for the manufacturing of medicines to be done locally is actively considered by the Indian Government.
In addition, there is considerable scope for cooperation in the health sector and hospital facilities between Fiji and India. While a number of Fijians travel to India for medical treatment, Fiji has the potential to become the regional hub for medical tourism.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Fiji and India signed a Memorandum of Agreement last month for the implementation of the second phase of assistance to Fijian SME sector from the Government of India. India earlier provided a sum of US$2.2 million towards the same scheme.
Nevertheless, Fiji generally exports gold, other jewellery, scrap metal and in some instances exported fresh and frozen tuna and wood products to India. On the other hand, Fiji imports Indian spices, sweet and savory snacks and confectionaries, textile, clothing (fabrics and finished apparel) and footwear including handbags, jewellery, ceramic wear, hardware items, medical supplies and sporting equipment.
Ladies and Gentlemen
As a vibrant economy dependent on international trade and investment, Fiji welcomes genuine Indian investments and enhanced bilateral trade, which will generate mutual benefits for the people of both countries. Hence, organising of Trade and Investment Symposiums either in India or in Fiji for an Indian trade mission, is a potential area for trade. This presents a good opportunity to create awareness on Fiji’s potential, investor networking as well as information on the requirements and existing procedures of the relevant authorities such as Reserve Bank of Fiji, Fiji Revenue and Customs Service, Land, Investment Fiji, and so forth.
Ladies and Gentlemen
The Fijian Government is working towards the transformation of Fiji into a dynamic, internationally competitive economy serving as the trade and investment hub of the Pacific. In this connection, a number of improvements and reforms have been made, including improvements and reforms of our trade facilitation agencies, sea and air ports. These reforms are aimed at achieving the set objectives of becoming a trading and investment hub.
However, there are potential areas to explore further, to promote inclusive development and encourage the building of systems of fair, reasonable and transparent global trade and investment rules.
The provision of efficient Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure is essential for a modern internationally competitive economy. The Fijian government is gradually undertaking ICT reforms. In this regard, Government has emphasized on investment in appropriate technology, efficient regulation, foreign investment and skills development programmes commensurate with the Trade Policy Framework objectives of international competitiveness and establishment and maintenance of Fiji’s position as “hub of the Pacific”. In view of the above, the Fijian Government would like to invite the Indian Government and private sector to partner with the Government and Fijian industry players to undertake these reforms and improve ICT infrastructure, given that India is well known as a global leader in the field of ICT.
Ladies and Gentlemen
With regards to the Textile, Clothing and Footwear (TCF) industry, Fiji currently needs fashion designing courses offered by tertiary education providers. India, on the other hand, has a well-developed textile sector and has been one of the key sectors in terms of exports, employment and MSB development. With the assistance of the Indian Government, source placements for Fijians could be identified by the private sector for higher education in NIFT. These placements could be considered under the current Indian Technical Economic Cooperation (ITEC) program or any other program that the Indian Government sees fit.
Furthermore, the Indian Government could assist further in considering placing visiting professors/teachers to be based with the tertiary providers such as Fiji National University (FNU) and run courses and programmes for the initial few years and then dedicated programmes for the later years. As it is, the TCF industry also needs capacity building in utilising new technologies in order to remain cost effective.
In terms of assistance provided to the Co-operative College, further cooperation between Fiji and India needs to be considered, especially in agriculture and dairy. 50 per cent of India’s sugar industry is centred around cooperatives for farming, where they have experienced higher yield production on smaller pieces of land. The assistance could be in the form of;
- Specialised training of members of resource based cooperatives to improve efficiency and productivity;
- Technical Assistance for development of appropriate training programmes; and
- Mentoring Programmes for cooperatives – to enable learning in the practical environment and peer learning.
Ladies and Gentlemen
In the area of biosecurity and technical assistance, the Fijian Government intends to explore the possibilities of encouraging exchange programs between Biosecurity Authority of Fiji and India’s Quarantine Department in the areas of border engagement, post-border and specialised technical staff. This is crucial to the development and enhancement of Fiji’s Biosecurity enforcement and clearance to facilitate trade.
Ladies and Gentlemen
In the last 3 years, a total of 38 projects were registered and implemented with a value of $13,768, 000 and creating 419 new employment opportunities. In realising the positive outcome in the areas of potential investment, Indian investors are welcome to invest solely or through joint-ventures in the following sectors:
- Information Technology industry;
- Manufacturing-such as food processing, light manufacturing industry including furniture, rubber plastic and steel-based products, shipbuilding, vehicle manufacturing including buses (environmental friendly);
- Tourism – hotel and accommodation;
- Renewable energy project;
- Pharmaceutical and medical devices;
- Audio Visual;
- Textile, clothing and footwear; and
- Construction industry.
Ladies and Gentlemen
To conclude, Fiji and India’s bilateral relations has grown from strength to strength and I believe more can still be done to take this mutual relation to another level, especially focusing on various nuances of enhancing bilateral trade and commerce and exploring the way forward.
With those words, I once again thank the High Commission of India for the invitation and I wish you well in your deliberations.
Vinaka Vakalevu. Thank You.
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