Praneeta Prakash 
[File Photo]
The Reserve Bank of Fiji says the country needs to attract more investment into agriculture and renewable energy sectors instead of relying heavily on tourism.
Governor Ariff Ali says tourism remains important, but Fiji also has strong potential in agriculture, business process outsourcing, renewable energy and retirement living.
He highlighted this while making submissions to the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs on the review of the Investment Fiji annual reports.
Standing Committee on Economic Affairs member Premila Kumar had raised concerns that Investment Fiji’s annual reports place too much emphasis on tourism.
RBF Governor, Ariff Ali says agriculture offers significant opportunities.
“But there are two areas that I can tell you recently that has seen some traction. One is agriculture, and the other is the BPO sector. But what I feel that the Investment Fiji may need to think about is how can they get maybe Ministry of Land together with them, Ministry of Agriculture together with them, maybe biosecurity together, because these are all linked.”
Ali adds that there is a need to attract more investment into the agriculture sector.
“We are closer to Australia and New Zealand, there are a lot of people who now want to go into food that is more natural rather than using fertiliser and so forth. So there is this market for organic, and then the BPO sector.”
Ali says Investment Fiji should work more closely with government agencies to attract investors and help remove barriers to doing business.
