Our highlights are determined by when we had the onset of this pandemic. And that forced us to pivot in terms of our tactical activity, says Investment Fiji chief executive officer Craig Strong.

Mr Strong said they had to rely on technology as despite the pandemic their stakeholders still expected a fully operational team.

“Before we could visit investors, and they could visit us, we could promote our exporters in our target markets.”

“We could not do that.”

“So, we relied on technology. And I think that is a success of our work over the last eight months.”

He said to increase the interest of investors they had and will have virtual seminars.

“We have several virtual initiatives to make sure that we can still attract investment into Fiji. And we had several virtual initiatives that allowed us to promote Fijian products globally.”

“So, we had a series of 65 webinars where we invited potential investors from around the globe to dial in for webinars.”

“We had one on agriculture, we had one on the pharmaceutical industry and we have one on the healthcare industry.”

“So, for example, in agriculture, we had Michael Joe from Joe’s farm. So, he talked about his journey over the last 30 years and the potential and still had successes and the potential.”

Mr Strong said having relevant stakeholders available made it easier to have doubts cleared.

“We also had the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture. So at least we had in that forum, policy questions could be answered. So, it could be a commercial question.”

“We found that very effective in terms of our export, so promoting the success of Fijian products globally.”

In October, last year Investment Fiji featured 50 Global Trade Shows.

It hosted 50 exhibitors across five different sectors. 60 trade deals that came from that.

Furthermore, he said though virtual meetings will never displace the face-to-face virtually they have met more of their goals.

Investment Fiji will be hosting more webinars to help draw more investors.

Feedback: susana.tuilau@fijisun.com.fj