Non. Resident High Commissioner for Pakistan, H.E Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri,
President, Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Mr Irfan Iqbal Sheikh,
Senior Vice President FPCCI, Muhammed Suleman Chawla,
President, Fiji Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Ali,
Chief Executive Officer, Fiji Development Bank, Mr Saud Minam,
Executive Directors, Fiji Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
Members of the Media,
Invited Guests,
Bula Vinaka and a very good afternoon to you all.
It is a pleasure to witness the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (‘MOU’) between the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (‘FPCCI’) and Fiji Chamber of Commerce and Industry (‘FCCI’) – a partnership to enhance economic relations between the two countries.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today marks a remarkable day as the business communities in Fiji and Pakistan form a collaboration to build bilateral trade and economic relationships between the private sector, government and various stakeholders.
Through this MOU both, FPCCI and FCCI will combine efforts in promoting economic activities as well as identifying opportunities for trade, industry, services, investment whilst safeguarding the interest of the domestic stakeholders, such as the MSMEs and infant industries.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The trade between the two countries has been limited, despite there being growth. Commodities such as machinery, logs and fish have been exported to Pakistan. Whilst export from Pakistan to Fiji has been approximately $3.8 million.
There is potential to grow trade between Fiji and Pakistan and this MOU is establishing the business-to-business link to kick start the economic relations
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Trade and investment can be facilitated through consistent and stable policies. The Fijian Government over the years has created opportunities for the businesses. We have strategically streamlined and undertaken a number of business reforms to provide an enabling environment for investors. These include:
- reforms in the business processes by digitalising the registration of companies/business and TIN;
- elimination of business license;
- risk based approach to business registration;
- launch of online doing business platform with key business related information;
- revised regulatory framework for investments – Investment Act 2021, to name a few.
As the trade, transportation and communications hub of the Pacific, Fiji continues to strive towards transforming into a vibrant, dynamic, internationally competitive economy.
As Fiji promotes economic diversification, our well-established and emerging outsourcing industry provides untapped opportunities. Fiji’s outsourcing industry has grown significantly over the past decade, and Fiji is now positioned as the leading outsourcing offshore destination for the Pacific region.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Collaboration with private sectors is important now more than ever.
Not taking so much of the time, this MOU will form the basis of greater mutually beneficial economic and trade links between the two countries and our commitment towards re-defining our relations. Indefinite opportunities lie ahead, as numerous initiatives continue to evolve around us.
To conclude, this is the first step to growing relations between the two countries and I believe more can still be done to take this mutual relation to another level, especially focusing on various degrees of enhancing trade and commerce and exploring the way forward.
We look forward to more collaborations in the future.
Thank You and Vinaka Vakalevu
