THE Prime Ministers Exporter of the Year Awards (EYA) will this year celebrate two decades of existence.
And to honour this, the 2012 Vodafone & Westpac Prime Ministers EYA has adopted the theme "Celebrating 20 years of Global Recognition" for this years event.
During the launch of the 2012 Vodafone & Westpac Prime Ministers EYA last night, Attorney-General and Minister for Industry and Trade Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the Exporter of the Year Awards had gone from strength to strength since its inception
He said the awards were an opportunity to recognise industries and producers which had struggled to achieve results.
"This public recognition we believe has resulted in many of the producers themselves being able to position themselves in the market vis-a-vis financers who recognise their strengths," Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
"The public recognition means that they are then able to go and access funds that perhaps they may have not been able to do so."
He said international co-operation played an important part in the positioning of the Fiji brand in the global market.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum also said while Fiji may not be able to compete with the volume of goods produced by other markets in the world, it had an advantage by producing niche products.
"This is why you will see with the Fijian Made, Fijian Grown, Fijian Packaged products et cetera we are able to draw a distinct brand that people can then capitalise on locally."
This year's exporter of the year awards will have 12 categories and will focus more on sector based awards.