Business

Businesses must comply with existing legislation

February 19, 2020 6:33 am

Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism Premila Kumar

The Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism says businesses will have to ensure they comply with other legislation and regulations as required by law.

Premila Kumar says the legislation and regulation includes OHS and health requirements.

“In other words, responsibility for compliance rests with the business and the relevant regulatory agencies that carefully enforce the law through various proactive mechanisms, including spot checks and penalties.”

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Kumar adds the new reform also ensure a business license can be renewed for a period of up to three years by paying requisite fees.

“Under this reform, existing business will be required to notify the relevant agencies if there is a change in the structure within their license period.” 

The Minister adds as per the 2019 Ease of Doing Business Report, Fiji has dropped a rank from 101 to 102.

She says that whilst Fiji’s rank has gone down, the Doing Business Score has improved, by 0.35, as compared to a 0.04 improvement in the 2019.

This is an indication that reforms have taken place for doing business, but it is not as fast as other countries participating in the EODB process.