Discussion gathers momentum

Discussions on establishing more than one submarine cable network for telecommunication services is gathering momentum.

Minister for Trade and Investment Manoa Kamikamica said with the installation of more than one network, they hoped that interest from bigger international companies would grow.

“We also want to be technological hub in the Pacific,” he said.

“Because of the geographical location I cannot say too much but there are some very exciting initiatives that are in play at the moment that involves more than one connection of submarine cables into Fiji.

“At the moment we only have one which channels all of our traffic into Fiji.

“By having more than one connection into Fiji means that we will start getting some of the bigger players that want to set up data warehousing in our small country.”

He said the Pacific region would benefit from this significant development and from the growth of Fiji’s BPO sector.

“We have very robust BPO sector which is the business process outsourcing industry which is growing in leaps and bounds.

“People are starting to discover that apart from the Philippines and other BPO stationed countries, they have another location that’s offering similar services.

“We are seeing some movement towards Fiji and again through our regional hub aspirations we might need to move some of those BPO services into Tonga and other countries.”