Moves are underway to revive the Fiji Manufacturers Association which has been defunct for many years.

Some of the biggest players in the manufacturing sector met in Suva recently and have elected an interim Executive Board.

Dakshesh Patel has been appointed interim President and will take the Association to its first AGM in the coming months.

He says one of the first issues for the Association is to make submissions on the 2016 Budget.

‘’An independent body of manufacturers and representing manufacturers is critical and very important. It needs to have its own focus, it needs to have it’s own attention, it needs to have its own ideology. It’s not restricting with participating with other organisation. It should. It should. But, not withstanding that, we should not allow manufactures association to go into oblivion’’.

The revival is being facilitated by the Ministry of Trade and Investment Fiji.