Mollyn Nakabea 
The recent National Skills Gap Assessment Survey has revealed that efficient and safe recruitment of foreign workers is becoming increasingly critical to keeping businesses operational in Fiji.
According to the survey, Bangladesh and India remain the largest source markets for foreign labor since 2022, with workers from the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Tonga making up the largest proportion of foreign employees from the Pacific region.
Fiji Commerce & Employers Federation CEO Edward Bernard, said businesses are facing mounting pressure to maintain operations while long-term labour market challenges are addressed.
“While supply side issues of the labour market will take time to fix and a decision needs to be made for employers to access all of their 1% FNU levy, companies still need to continue operations. The only option, while companies move towards digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, is foreign labour.”
Bernard says Fiji is rapidly becoming a labour-receiving country and called for bilateral agreements to be established with Bangladesh and India to support safer and more efficient labour mobility arrangements.
He said Fiji already has established frameworks and infrastructure to facilitate the deployment of workers to Australia and New Zealand, and similar systems could be adapted for inbound labour recruitment.
