Tourism
Tourism has expanded rapidly since the early 1980s and is the leading economic activity in the islands. More than 409,000 people visited Fiji in 1999 (excluding cruise ship passengers). About one-quarter came from Australia, with large contingents also coming from New Zealand, Japan, the United States and United Kingdom Over 62,000 of the tourists were American, a number that has steadily increased since the start of regularly scheduled nonstop air service from Los Angeles. Tourism earned more than $300 million in foreign exchange for Fiji in 1998, an amount exceeding the revenue from its two largest goods exports (sugar and garments). The effects of the Asian financial crisis led to a sharp drop in the number of Asian tourists visiting Fiji in 1997 and 1998, which contributed to a substantial drop in gross domestic product. Positive growth returned in 1999, however, aided by a 20% devaluation of the Fijian dollar. 2005 was a record year for the tourism sector, with 9% growth according to Viliame Gavoka, Chief Executive of the Fiji Visitors Bureau.
Trade
Fiji runs a persistently large trade deficit. Imports in 1998 accounted for US$721 million, and exports for US$510 million, resulting in a US$116 million deficit. Tourism revenue yields a services surplus, however, which keeps the current account of its balance of payments roughly in balance ($13 million in 1998). Australia accounts for between 35% and 45% of Fiji's trade, with New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan varying year-by-year between 5% and 15% each.
Foodstuffs, machinery, mineral fuels, beverages, tobacco, and manufactured goods are the principal imports. The two largest exports are sugar and garments, which each accounted for approximately one-quarter of export revenue in 1998 (roughly $122 million each). The sugar industry suffered in 1997 due to low world prices and rent disputes between farmers and landowners, and again in 1998 from drought, but recovered in 1999. The Fijian garment industry has developed rapidly since the introduction of tax exemptions in 1988. The industry's output has increased nearly tenfold since that time. Fish, lumber, molasses, coconut oil and ginger are also important exports, although the last two are in decline. Forestry became important as an export trade in the mid-1980s, when the pine plantations planted in the 1950s and 1960s began to mature. Gold and silver are also exported.
Australia's Trade Commissioner Ross Bray revealed on 26 January 2006 that Fiji's exports to Australia are achieving an annual growth rate of 5 %. More than 31,000 Australian companies were trading in the Pacific, half of them in Fiji, Bray said.
Investment
The government's policy of awarding tax concessions to large multinational companies investing in Fiji has not proved universally popular. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has criticized it, saying that the concessions have been abused and have not generated long-term investment. The 2005 report of the ADB accused foreign entrepreneurs of leaving as soon as their concessions expired, and alleged that administration of the concessions encouraged corruption and bribery.
Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry joined the ADB on 31 December 2005, saying that foreign companies repatriated much of the profit made in Fiji, rather than investing it locally, while taking advantage of the infrastructure funded by Fijian taxpayers without paying any taxes themselves. This discriminated against local businesses, he claimed.
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It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Economy of Fiji"