Business council calls on government to make Pacific bubble happen first

Monday, 15 June 2020

A Pacific bubble needs to happen first, says Chandar Sen, president of the New Zealand Fiji Business Council.

Pressure is mounting on the government to open up border restrictions and allow travel between New Zealand and the Pacific countries before opening up travel with Australia.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made it clear New Zealand will open up travel with Australia first, before considering travel between New Zealand and the Pacific island countries.

Fijian Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is also keen to see travel between Fiji and New Zealand to start again soon.

Fijian Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum has been vocal in recent weeks about the need for a Pacific travel bubble, saying 'Fiji deserved better than second class consideration'.

And now the Auckland-based New Zealand Fiji Business Council is calling on the New Zealand government to urgently review its stance and open up border restrictions for mutual economic benefits.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said travel between New Zealand and the Pacific countries will be considered after Australia.

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At its recent executive meeting, the council said it was difficult to understand the rationale of the New Zealand government in adopting this position given Fiji and other Pacific Island nations such as Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and Niue were ahead of Australia in the fight against Covid-19.

'It is absolutely critical that the tourism industry resumes without delay in Fiji,' council president Chandar Sen said in a statement.

'Opening up the borders between the two countries would not only enable many New Zealanders to take longer holidays, but will provide the much needed kick-start to the severely challenged Fijian economy which is having the obvious flow-on effects not only on the people of Fiji but also those New Zealanders currently doing business in Fiji.'

The council has more than 120 member companies including some New Zealand's leading businesses.

Fiji reported only 18 cases of Covid-19, none of which resulted in deaths and all of which are reported to have recovered. Fiji's last reported Covid-19 case was on April 20. In the case of Samoa, Cook Island, Tonga and Niue, no Covid-19 cases have been reported at all.

Sen said while New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and Niue were all at the same level of Covid-19 prevention or elimination, Australia continued to report new cases almost daily, with the added complexity of the different states having varying quarantine and social distancing requirements.

The council, established more than 30 years ago in 1987 to maintain links between businesses in New Zealand and Fiji, has received strong feedback from its members concerning the difficulties they were experiencing from the inability to travel between the two countries.

Some examples raised with the council included Fiji-based employees stranded in New Zealand, inability to redeploy New Zealand personnel to Fiji, inability to travel to Fiji to prepare and complete tenders for construction projects, and the inability to deploy skilled personnel to Fiji to assist with the installation, commissioning and maintenance of critical machinery and equipment.

Tourism, agriculture and manufacturing are significant contributors to Fiji's GDP along with developing sectors such as food and beverage sector and the BPO/outsourcing sector.

Fiji received nearly 900,000 tourists to their shores in 2019, with over 200,000 of these from New Zealand, contributing over $500 million of the overall $2 billion the country earned from tourism.

While goods continue to flow between the two countries services contracts remain affected, large New Zealand construction companies are unable to complete specialist work in Fiji that can't be undertaken by local contractors.

Fijian companies also rely on New Zealand expats in key positions such as training local staff and while many returned home during Covid-19, most are eager to return and assist in recovering Fiji's economy.

Attorney-General Sayed-Khaiyum has told Australian media that Fiji's success should 'burst' the two-country bubble.

Sayed-Khaiyum said with no new cases in nearly two months, Fiji deserved better than second-class consideration in a regional travel arrangement, including New Zealand.

The Covid-19 pandemic had left the country's tourism industry paralysed, he said.

Khaiyum said in the interest of the thousands of Fijians who were now unemployed, 'we are actively exploring all potential options, and are open to creative ideas – including a state-led resumption of travel between Australia and Fiji'.

'Even if a fraction of the 10 million Australians who travel overseas each year came to Fiji in 2020, the local economy could be quickly revived,' Sayed-Khaiyum said.