Suva Retailers Ready for Business

The president of the Suva Retailers Association, Jitesh Patel, says they are positive of the economic outlook of Fiji and are ready for business.

Mr Patel was on Wednesday reelected into the board along with Shailendra Narayan as secretary, Vinod Kumar as treasurer and three vice presidents Raju Raniga, Sanjay Parmar and Jiten Patel.

The committee members are:

- Nilesh Kumar

- Selva Reddy

- Avinesh Prasad

- Vinod Mistry

- Madan K Mudaliar

- Rakesh Bulsara

- Jeetesh Kumar

- Yash Patel

Mr Patel said the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s economic outlook reflected their views of bringing business confidence back to the fore.

“Our retailers are ready for business and steadily we hope that the businesses grow,” Mr Patel said.

“We will come out of this (COVID- 19 pandemic challenges) and make sure that we’re on the right path to recovery."

“The Reserve Bank has a positive outlook that our economy will grow."

"We are on the same path as well.”

Membership, sign of confidence Mr Patel noted a gradual increase in membership, indicative of investor confidence in the capital.

“From 85 members three years we then went up to 110."

"As of today (23/03/22) the figure has crossed 150 already."

“And that’s our vision and mission as a committee, to make the association strong as it is the voice of the retailers."

“We can do a lot of things not only for the retailers but the customers as well.”

One of the visions for the association is to build a structure at the entrance of Suva synonymous with Capital.

This, he said, was the same that other towns and cities have with water fountains or beautified central island to its entrance.

Another was to have a children’s park within the city.

“Because end of the day we want to we want to do something for the city,” Mr Patel said.

OTHER MOTIONS AND CONCERNS

- Mr Patel urged businesses to adapt to the world business trends, being forward-thinkers and learning from the pandemic.

This means adopting online forms of payments and delivery packages to ensure business continuity, resilience and mitigation;

- Spate of thefts in the capital- The executive members will be having more talks with Police and stakeholders on increasing visibility.

One of the issues are that some Police officers are not in uniform and while they understand why they have taken that stand, having them in uniform (visibility) will add to security for retailers;

- Illegal street vendors - The retailers argued that many of them were selling the same thing in the shops which posed a threat on their business.

To this, the committee said they will have more talks with stakeholders;

- Membership fees will take effect from 2023.

Those with less than 20 employees will pay $100; retailers who have between 20-50 employees will pay 150 and corporate members will pay $200.

The recent fees were $60, $150, and $200 respectively;

- More networking among retailers and stakeholders to take place this year.

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