Fiji's Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica meeting the Fijian community members in Wellington on Monday, 8 September 2025. Photo: Fiji Ministry of Trade
Expanding Fiji's economy and reducing reliance on tourism are something the coalition government is working hard to achieve, one of the Fijian deputy prime ministers says.
Manoa Kamikamica, who is also the Minister for External Trade Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises, told members of the Wellington Fijian community it is why he brought a delegation to New Zealand.
Kamikamica led a delegation to Aotearoa last week as part of the biennial Fiji-New Zealand Business Forum, which began in 2023.
The delegation aimed to secure investors interested in contributing to Fiji's growth across agriculture, ICT (information and communications technology), and other sectors.
Kamikamica shared that since its last trade mission to New Zealand in 2023, the government has been able to implement some plans, with investors already seizing opportunities.
Having ensured the rule of law, good governance, freedom of speech and the independence of the judiciary, the government has moved on to try broaden up the Fiji economy, he said.
"Over the last 31 months, we've started to look at commercial agriculture, and there are some big investors starting to look at commercial agriculture in Fiji," Kamikamica told the meeting at the Wellington Parish Methodist church hall on Taranaki Street.
"Fiji Water is one of them, and another company from Sri Lanka, and we got an Israeli company soon. We are trying to broaden the economy, have more commercial agriculture and ensure that our farmers start to benefit from these new opportunities in terms of marketing.
"[It's] very early days, but we'll make some good progress."
Fiji's Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica (second from left at the back) with the delegation from Fiji in Wellington on Monday. Photo: Fiji Ministry of Trade
Mahogany 'a multibillion-dollar industry'
Kamikamica said mahogany is another area government is seriously looking into.
He said mahogany has the potential but the laws did not help with growth of that sector, something that is about to change with a new mahogany law set to be in place soon.
"The new laws hope to change all that," Kamikamica said.
"It is a multibillion-dollar industry for Fiji, so, we're trying to push hard and get that going."
He said Fiji could export the high-value timber to generate upto FJ$100 million (approx. NZ$74.5m) a year.
"That's how big the mahogany forest is," he said.
Fiji Hardwood Corporation Limited (FHCL), the state owned enterprise set up to manage mahogany, stated in April that the country's mahogany stock has been valued $213m (approx. NZ$158m) based on a 2017 assessment.
FHCL general manager Semi Dranibaka told The Fiji Times at the time that the valuation was outdated and likely to have increased over the past seven years.
"The last valuation was done in 2017, and the standing mahogany tree value was $213m," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"In 2013, it was valued at $165m (approz. NZ$122m). The longer the trees grow, the higher the value."
Dranibaka said then the company would conduct its full inventory exercise in 2025 and 2026 to get an idea of the existing mahogany stock.
ICT is another sector that is growing rapidly, assisted by the investment of Google in Fiji.
The company has set-up in the country and Kamikamica is confident that and other investments already happening will create more jobs for Fiji's youths.
"Fiji will become a big ICT hub in the years to come, so more jobs for young people in ICT, cyber security, AI intelligence. That's what the expectation is," he said.
He shared that the Kalabu Tax Free Zone in Nasinu is going to house an ICT park, with construction expected to be compeleted in eight years time, offering employment for 15,000 people from start to finish.
The plan, Kamikamica said, is to develop the ICT park so that Fiji can "attract a lot more ICT or technology-type investment into the field".
High quality investment
Kamikamica said Fiji is now starting to see very high quality type of investment.
He revealed that Investment Fiji figures show there is about FJ$6b (approx. NZ$4.4b) of potential and active projects in the country at the moment.
Speaking last month at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit in Labasa, Kamikamica said there are 195 active investment projects worth an estimated FJ$5.5b, with the potential to grow to FJ$13b (approx. NZ$9.6b).
The projects are across construction, pre-development and conceptual stages.
He said then that around 84 projects - valued at FJ $2b (approx. NZ$1.5b) - were already under construction.
"I don't think we've ever reached that level before," he told members of the Fijian community in Wellington.
Two billion dollars is investment in construction, including FJ$500m invested in a 40-room up-class resort in Nacula, Yasawa Islands, with a village for workers also being contracted as part of the project.
"These are the types of quality investments that are happening," he added.
Rural economy
Kamikamica said government was also serious about developing rural economy, targeting citizens who live away from the urban centres and on outer islands.
This has led to the revival of the cooperative system, the strengthening of the work done by the iTaukei Land Trust Board (iTLTB), which has set up a Resource Owners' Bank.
The bank will be for iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) communities, offering low-interest loans with no deposit requirements, making it easier for resource owners to access capital for various initiatives.
iTLTB chief executive Solomone Nata, who also attended the talanoa session in Wellington, said the interest rates are set at around 2.5 percent, with repayment terms of two to three years, with landowners to borrow anywhere from $1000 to $100,000 for a wide range of projects, including property investment, livestock, and gravel extraction.
