Fiji Islands Economy

The Fiji economy over the past 15 years has gone through good and very bad times. The potential is great, with diverse natural resources, a large labour force, a central position in the South Pacific and a very successful tourism industry. However, politics and corruption have caused years of under achievement and an overweighted and rediculaously inefiicient civil service, predominantly Fijian, has resulted in a poor economy. Four coups in 20 years, the latest in 2006, has resulted in a complete lack of investor confidence. And this, coupled with an infuruiating employee mentality with a complete lack of busihness drive and work ethics, has lost crucial investment.

Tourism is the country's largest source of foreign income and despite the coups and lack of governemetn investment has continued to grow. Sugar is traditionally the largest export product, accounting for a quarter of the country's foreign exchange and feeds over 20,000 farmers and their families. However, with land leases already expiring and the four sugar mills and supply services in desperate need of cash to make them more economical, the sugar industry is on the verge of collapsing and some suggest by the year 2008, sugar will no longer be a cash crop. Little has been done to find a replacement industry to utilize the land.

Fiji's export of fish amounts to about 10% of the country's foreign sales with a total value of about F$100m. About half of this is sold as canned tuna and over a quarter as premium fresh fish to the Japanese gourmet market. Fiji has about a million hectares of forest almost half of which is untouched hardwood forests, and around 100,000 hectares of pine forest under cultivation. Wood chip exports amount to almost F$50m. A government scheme to harvest the hard wood mahogany trees for over F$500m caused some of the problems behind the mutiny of Parliament in 2000.

Fiji also has substantial gold mines with an estimated 3 million ounces of gold reserves. Emperor Gold Mines has been mining the gold reserves in Vatukoula on the north side of Viti Levu since 1934 and produces about 130,000 ounces of gold each year with its exports accounting for six per cent of the country's foreign income. However, governemet inefiiciency drove and a poor work force Emperor Gold Mines to withdraw from the copuntry after the 2006 coup. A small garment industry exists providing a cheap and often illegal labour force.

The coups of 1987 opened the doors for corruption and sent the country's economy into a five year decline. The early 1990's were bright but suddenly dissolved in 1995 with the collapse of the National Bank of Fiji due to mismanagement which forced the country to write off over F$200 million in bad debt. The economy again picked itself up in the late 1990's with tourism booming but the sensitive issues of sugar land leases left many Indians unsure of their future and regional disputes and power struggles between Fijian chiefs exposed the fragile political make up of the country. Then occurred the mutiny of Parliament by commoner George Speight and his Tailevu backed Fijian rebels in May 2000 and the country again slipped into political and economical depression. The4 2006 coup by Frank Bainimarama was an effort to drive corruption out of Fijain politics and bring the country into the modern world.

The instability of the country has left few feeling secure about the future. More than 20% of the Indian population have migrated to greener lands since 1987 (many of whom were doctors, lawyers, teachers and local entrepreneurs). Those that remain put up with corrupt Fijian politicians and broken promises of unity. Hospitals are under-staffed, school dropouts have increased, the courts are failing, crime is rising and the friendly Fijian spirit appears broken.


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Last Updated
04 March 2008
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