Issue No:
760; 156 May 2001
Fiji has slid to the same league as Zimbabwe, Gambia,
Cambodia and othe rnations of similar illrepute.
A media report states:
Since the May 19 coup in 2000, Fiji has slid 18 places as an investment
destination to number 90 out of 185, according to the latest semi-annual Country
Risk Ratings released by the respected international finance magazine
Euro-Money.
Fiji's fall is the sixth worst in the survey, according to Kontiki Brokers, a
regional brokerage based in the Pacific island nation's capital.
Fiji is now comparable to countries like Zimbabwe, Gambia, Equatorial Guinea,
Cambodia and Turkmenistan in terms of the world's fastest deteriorating image
among investors and financiers. Kontiki predicts Fiji's ranking to fall even
further unless a stable political system is put in place soon.
The Kontiki weekly report said the critical message is that Fiji's status as an
investment destination has been "trashed" as seen from its relative
position vis-a-vis a number of other small former British colonies with similar
kind of economies.
The report said improving Fiji's investment status should be a guiding objective
for whichever party wins the upcoming August elections. Prior to the coup, Fiji
was poised to achieve growth of between seven to nine per cent for 2001. This
has been revised to negative seven per cent.
Major industries such as garments and tourism collectively lost hundreds of
millions of dollars as a result of the coup. There is also uncertainty
surrounding the sugar industry, the backbone of Fiji's economy, because of
hundreds of land leases expiring.
A business analyst said it will take Fiji years to recover as the coup and its
effects had exacerbated existing structural weakness in the economy such as
poorly defined land policies, government inefficiency, oversized government and
civil service, lack accountability in government and the civil service and high
utility costs.
"Fiji faces an uphill battle," said the analyst. "The situation
is more serious than the 1987 coup after which Fiji went through a decade of
economic stagnation," he added."
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