PM International Business Awards Returns with New Categories, Awards

After three years, the Prime Minister’s International Business Awards has returned with new categories and awards.

Deemed as Fiji’s most prestigious business award, the Prime Minister’s International Business Awards will see more businesses being recognised for their excellence, innovation, resilience and contribution to Fiji’s economy.

Investment Fiji chief executive officer Kamal Chetty said for the first time this year, there is the PHAMA Plus Agribusiness Innovation Challenge.

Mr Chetty said this new award recognizes agribusinesses that has developed their product.

“The PHAMA Plus Agribusiness Innovation Challenge looks at companies during COVID that were developing a lot of products.

“It is important to recognize the products that they have developed and how we can support them to become an exporter in the future.

“We also have the recognition awards, that we will be recognizing a number of companies that may not have won but have contributed to Fiji over the years.”

He said the Prime Minister’s International Business Awards provided an opportunity for businesses in Fiji to benchmark performance, build capability, inspire innovation and support job creation.

There are 13 categories and 17 awards this year’s Prime Minister’s International Business Awards

Selection

Mr Chetty said more than 200 applications were received this year through an online portal.

He said this was the highest number of applicants received compared to previous years.

“We can see a lot of businesses that are also very optimistic about the economy and we look forward to seeing their optimism being recognised on the night of the awards.”

With over 200 applications received for the Prime Minister’s International Business Awards, Mr Chetty said a rigorous process was followed for the selection.

“There is an online platform we use to get all the applications, there are certain categories that applications will match.

“We have high caliber judges that goes through the application, looks at it and then a winner is selected.

With this year’s theme on ‘Resilience, Recovery and Progress’, the panel of judges also looked at businesses that were innovative and overcame the challenging COVID period.

This included their excellence in service, performance and other areas that indicated how well the businesses performed.

“Our panel of judges scrutinized the submissions and selected the winners based on their evaluation of these businesses.

“We had engaged high-caliber and experienced judges from the private and public sectors who have vetted the applications.”

Preparation

Mr Chetty said preparations for the Prime Minister’s International Business Awards have been running smoothly.

“We are at around 90 per cent occupancy meaning we have sold majority of our tickets with only limited seats available now,” he said.

“Investment Fiji staff have been working vigorously to make sure the event runs accordingly to our sponsors expectation.”

The Prime Minister’s International Business Awards will be held this Saturday November 25 at the Sheraton Fiji Resort & Spa.

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