Business
Why Fiji's Good to Invest In
A Special Advertising Feature
Fiji has a long list of reasons for ranking as good destination for investment.
It has a well educated, English-speaking population of more than 800,000 people living in resource-endowed islands located in a position that make it the trade, manufacturing, communications, air and sea transport, and business and financial services hub of the South Pacific.
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It has daily international air services linking it with Australia, New Zealand and North America. It has water, power, roading, telecommunications services, including a Southern Cross cable link, and other infrastructure that makes it the South Pacific¹s most sophisticated independent nation.
Preferential bilateral and multilateral trade agreements give its exporters assured markets in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America. Now these advantages are topped off with an eight-point non-discriminatory, transparent and easily available investment incentive package launched from January 2001.
This offers low tax rates, low duties on production materials, construction and capital materials and accelerated depreciation all-owances. Investors are taxed on income only once. They can claim investment allowances, loss carry forwards, duty-free materials for export products and export income tax deductions.
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And double tax agreements with New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Britain mean that tax concessions in Fiji aren¹t hit by tax in an investor¹s home country. Liberal investment and other policies leave business management in the hands of owners.
Key managerial and technical staff can be hired from abroad, but they need eventually to be replaced by trained locals. However, certain key expatriates can be retained. What investors should bring to Fiji are adequate project funds. They should finance fixed assets from overseas sources but can borrow locally with the Reserve Bank of Fiji's approval. Corporate income tax rates are dropping from 34 percent in the financial year ending 2001 to 30 percent in the financial year ending 2003.
New export enterprises can claim deductions from total export income beginning at 100% for 2001-2002, falling in stages to nil from 2009. Special incentives are available for investment in the Information Technology (IT) businesses, in agricultural, forestry and marine resource business and in rurally located manufacturing businesses.
With tourism now established as Fiji's largest industry the incentives package includes 20 years of tax-holiday for investment exceeding F$10 million in hotels/resorts plus, 100% write-off on all capital spending in any one year during a period of eight years, or spread over the same period, six years of loss carry-forwards and duty free import of capital equipment, machinery and plant.
What investors should bring to Fini are adequate project funds. They should finance fixed assets from overseas sources, but can borrow locally with the Reserve Bank of Fiji's approval.
The Fiji Islands Trade and Investment Bureau is an agency specifically set up by the Government to facilitate trade and investment into Fiji. It is necessary that interested investors contact the FTIB for the necessary assistance and information to getting their projects established and a smooth commercial operations thereafter.
