Interim Trade, Industry, Tourism and Communication minister Tom Ricketts made the revelation yesterday while briefing a trade and investment mission from Taiwan.
“The plan has 14 components, and the pilot project for this is what is known as the investment approvals tracking system,” Ricketts said.
He told the delegates the new system would allow foreign investors to submit their applications for foreign investment registration on-line.
“It will also allow foreign investors to track the status of their applications,” he said.
Ricketts said the other benefit is that the system will spare investors from tedious waiting time and will also the repeated trips to the Fiji Islands Trade and Investment Bureau.
“The benefits of this system for foreign investors are that it will reduce both waiting time and the number of physical trips to FTIB and reduce pre-establishment business costs,” he said.
Overall the new system would portray a positive image for the Fiji Government, he said.
“Coincidentally, this system will be rolled out this week and will be officially launched this Thursday (tomorrow),” Ricketts said.
In terms of investment, there are specific incentives in place for certain industries as well as general investment incentives.
But he said there are bottlenecks in Fiji’s broader investment approvals process, which will be addressed by the Government.
“Again, this is an area of concern for us and we are putting measures in place to address this,” he said.
Delegates were also told his ministry is working closely with the registrar of companies in Fiji to streamline the business name and company registration process.
“The initial phase involves the digitalization of all records kept at the office of the registrar of companies.
“Once completed, it is envisaged that search for business and companies’ names can be done online and in future, business name and company registration as well,” Ricketts said.
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Quelle/Source: Fijilive, 16.07.2008
