foreign investors will probably be targeting fiji more when moving forward
MARAIA VULA
Suva
With elections approaching, there is a positive vibe that Fiji could see an upsurge in investment. These were the words of ANZ Asia Pacific economist Daniel Wilson yesterday.
Mr Wilson, who is based in Singapore, is the lead Pacific economist and was present during a special ANZ Economic Breakfast event at Holiday Inn Suva.
He was accompanied by the bank’s Hong Kong-based senior economist Raymond Yeung.
Mr Wilson said: “Foreign investment hasn’t come back very aggressively but we see that elections nearing this could be expected to bring positive events for the economy.
“Foreign investors will probably be targeting Fiji more for their investment dollars moving forward.
“For us it really opens the door for investments to return to the country at a more accelerated pace.”
This will create employment.
Economic outlook
Mr Wilson added the outlook for the Fijian economy was good with a few reasons underpinning it.
“Lending has been accelerating rapidly both from the private consumption side as well as importantly on the investment side and the business side,” he said.
“Also income growth across the board, we start to see it broaden quite rapidly in the sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, transport and infrastructure development. We are also almost on inflation point where growth is at average one per cent over the past five years quickly accelerated to four to five percent range that the government is targeting over the medium term.”
He stressed a lot of capital expenditure would be coming through over the next 12 to 24 months and this would also drive growth.
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