Fiji is gunning towards strengthening its bilateral trade and investment relations in the Indonesian market.

Fiji is gunning towards strengthening its bilateral trade and investment relations in the Indonesian market.

Investment Fiji Chief Executive Craig Strong says Fiji has been exporting less and importing more with Indonesia in the past few years.

Speaking at the Fiji/Indonesia Business and Trade meeting he highlighted that last year alone Fiji’s exports to Indonesia stood at around $0.89 million while imports were at $61.78 million.

He is encouraging local enterprises to diversify their operations to boost import substitution.

“What we can do now is to start mobilizing the opportunity to break down to small bite-size pieces in terms of sectors. I think it would be interesting for some industries that are here to get an understanding from the cost basis if the distribution going to go through the distributor as they try to build the market share through those 38 stalls or whatever they are.”

Indonesian Ambassador to Fiji Benyamin Scott Carna-di says Indonesian investors are astonished by the attractive investment and trade packages that Fiji currently offers.

“Currently we are experiencing a surplus in terms of trade balance with Fiji. But I see there are still rooms for both sides to increase its trade.”

Since 2012, Indonesian investors have successfully implemented two projects in the general services and construction sector with a total investment of $1.4 million.