Investment Fiji plans to have their new Online Investment Approval System activated by the end of this year.

Executive chairman, Truman Bradley, confirmed this while presenting at the Top Executives (TOPEX) Conference at the Warwick Fiji Resort & Spa.

This system will mean that all foreign investors, and after some times local investors, will be able to get approvals from tier one agencies online within five days.

Tier one agencies includes Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority, Investment Fiji, Reserve Bank of Fiji, Immigration Department and the Registrar of Companies.

“Investment Fiji is currently working on a completely modernised system to enable investors to register and get approval online to expedite the whole approval process to no more than five days,” Mr Bradley said.

“We have been testing this out for the past four to five months and we keep getting new things but we will roll this out by the end of the year.”

The big challenge

While Investment Fiji does not see much challenges with the tier one agencies, it is the tier two agencies which has them worried.

Mr Bradley said: “The main board of contention when we get past tier one is tier two.

“The reality is we have 24 agencies which make up tier two and this is where we see a lot of bottlenecks for investors.

“The goal of investment Fiji once we get tier one all online in a system which can be digitally tracked, is to move down to tier two and then enable tier two to be tracked as well.

“The reality is this is going to take time but the initiative is there and we have to work towards it.”

Mr Bradley said they have identified some bottlenecks and the first one will be the Lands Department.

“Investment Fiji is working with Lands Department and the TLTB to elevate it from being tier two agency to tier one,” he said.

“We have MOUs working with them now directly so we can try and expedite any processes.

“So if an investor has any problems, they can come to Investment Fiji an we should be able to work with them to try and resolve it faster than what was in the past.”

Future and potential

Mr Bradley said, Investment Fiji going forward in future in 2015, wishes to make sure it understands the needs of the private sector.

This, he said was to enable policies not to be pushed out but for both parties to discuss policies going forward.

Looking at foreign investment registration trends, Mr Bradley said of the 700 projects registered in the past five years, they were interested in the growth in the services sector.

“The services sector has become dominant in the world economies as it evolves and London and Singapore are great examples of service-based nations,” he said.

“Services is something Fiji needs to concentrate on as there is great opportunity there.”

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