GOVERNMENT enforcement agencies involved in the approval processes of foreign investment applications must challenge itself to ensure increased ranking in the ease of doing business in the next 12 months.
According to the World Bank ranking in ease of doing business, Fiji moved from rank 77 to 60 —a jump of more than 10 places to now compare favourably with our Pacific island neighbours.
Investment Fiji deputy chairman Jitoko Tikolevu said although some Pacific island countries were still doing very well, the indicator with Fiji's improved ranking showed some improvement in how the enforcement and approval agencies had tried to streamline its processes.
But he said those agencies that included the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority (FRCA), Department of Immigration, Reserve Bank of Fiji, and Town and Country Planning and others, could "still do a lot".
"The incentives are there for us that by jumping more than 10 steps, we can even go to 50 or 40 (in ranking) come next year," Mr Tikolevu said.
"So we will need to challenge ourselves, the enforcement agencies, to work with Investment Fiji to ensure in the next ranking that comes around in the next 12 months, we are showing some improvements in our business approval processes compared to everybody else," he said.
Investment Fiji chief executive officer Ravuni Uluilakeba said the jump from 77 to 60 in the World Bank ranking was positive given that over the last three to four years, Fiji had never gone positive in this ranking. And this is a milestone. Yes, there are still more room for improvement and I am sure within the next 12 months or so, working side by side with the 22 government agencies will give us some positive aspect and we could go down to 40," he said.