Update: 5:09PM THE Reserve Bank of Fiji has announced two new polices to safeguard the country's balance of payment in light of global financial crisis.
Governor Sada Reddy said the tourism local value added and the high end luxury import policies were to support the policies announced last week which also saw the Fiji dollar devalued by 20 per cent last week.
The tourism value added policy, which comes into effect in June, will link borrowing from commercial banks and other lending institutions by hotel operators to their local value added and environment protection.
Under this policy, RBF will give six month scholarships to the most promising graduate from the tourism industry schools to study in Asia on local food processing.
Under the high end luxury import policy, the RBF has asked commercial banks and other lending institutions to review their lending to this sector so that there is no excessive holdings of stocks and imports of high end luxury imports which tie up valuable foreign exchange in stocks. Imports related to tourism will not be affected.
