TRAVEL and vaccines are the two priority areas for the Australian High Commission.
This was according to the high commissioner John Feakes who spoke to members of the Fiji Australia Business Council (FABC) during the 2021 FABC speed networking dinner on Wednesday.
“From our perspective I want to reassure every single one of you that we understand the importance of international travel to Fiji’s economy,” he said.
“Very much understood by our system, understood by my prime minister and by my minister, Senator Payne and the Australian government remains committed to reopening travel, when it’s safe to do so.
“But I don’t want to underestimate the challenges involved given the complexities arising from managing an ever changing COVID situation across a number of jurisdictions in Australia.”
He said they were a federated state and the states had enormous say in travel arrangements which the federal government was able to implement.
“I give you an undertaking that I’ll continue to update you on developments and travel, as well as vaccines, travel and vaccines are the high commissions number one and number two priorities.
“I know that there will be strong interests to everyone in this room in these updates both because of the impact on you personally but because of the impact on the economy and on your businesses,” said Mr Feakes.
He said COVID had thrown up a raft of travel and logistical challenges which were previously unimaginable and close co-operation between the private sector and government had been critical to ensuring supply chains and businesses remained open.
“As we marked one year anniversary border restrictions, I want to commend the resilience and agility of the business sector in Fiji in these very challenging circumstances,” he said.
FABC vice president Saud Minam said the council had been very active in the past year.
He said the council had been part of budget consultation last year to having joint meetings with Australia and New Zealand business councils with the attorney general.
It also has been busy in terms of serving the communities and have made a decent amount of donation to the communities across Fiji as well.
