“MAKE IT IN FIJI” OFFICIAL LAUNCH SUVA, 20 OCTOBER 2009
SPEECH BY H E MR JAMES BATLEY AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER TO FIJI
It is my pleasure to be here tonight as part of the official launch of the “Make it in Fiji” campaign.
Australian Government and private sector involvement in Fiji’s TCF industry goes right back to its infancy in the late 1980s. Since that time, Australia has been both a source of investment, and a significant export market.
From the beginning, the industry in Fiji benefitted from the SPARTECA trade agreement, although the margin of preference enjoyed by Fiji’s exporters began to be eroded as Australia progressively opened up and liberalised its economy during the course of the 1980s and 1990s. This opening up was, of course, one of the key factors in the enormous growth of the Australian economy over the last twenty years or so and – most recently - in its impressive resilience in the face of the global economic crisis.
Just as industries in Australia have needed to adapt and change in response to increased international competition during this period, the TCF industry in Fiji has had to adapt and change too. And over the past decade, the Australian Government has helped the TCF industry in Fiji face up to these challenges in two key ways.
The first was the introduction, in 2001, of the SPARTECA-TCF scheme, a scheme designed with the interests of the TCF industry specifically in mind. This scheme has enabled certain goods to enter Australia duty free that are not otherwise entitled to duty free entry under the SPARTECA agreement.
I would be the first to admit that the scheme does not satisfy everyone; but then I’m not sure I’m aware of any international trading agreement that satisfies everyone completely. Not surprisingly, the scheme has received close scrutiny from the relevant industry bodies in Australia. We make no excuses for this, that’s as it should be. And let’s face it, the sustainability of an arrangement like SPARTECA-TCF can only be strengthened when the government engages in a frank - and at times robust - dialogue with its domestic stakeholders. In the end, of course, I think there can be no doubt that the SPARTECA-TCF scheme has worked to shore up the viability and survival of the industry in Fiji.
The second way in which Australia has supported the industry in recent years is through the Training and Productivity Improvement Program, which has been funded out of our bilateral aid program with Fiji. This program, valued at some A$2.4 million, has assisted the industry to take some of the difficult but necessary measures to enhance its productivity and its international competitiveness. Over the last three years it has assisted individual participating firms in areas such as business planning, human resource management, marketing and structural redesign.
The success of this program has given Australia the space to make the SPARTECA-TCF scheme more generous. In February of this year the Australian Government agreed to reduce the Minimum Local Area Content (MLAC), required for securing duty free export of qualifying garments to Australia, from 35% to 25%.
I don’t mean to understate the challenges that the industry continues to face. While the MLAC reduction might have been one piece of good news, it has to be said that most of the news over the past year has been bad, as the global recession has squeezed your traditional export markets and affected operations considerably. Even so, I’m confident that our Training and Productivity Improvement Program has improved the local industry’s resilience and helped it to cope better with the economic shock of the global recession than it might otherwise have done.
So I would like to think that Australian assistance and support over the years has contributed to the spirit on display at tonight’s launch. I think the launch of the “Make it in Fiji” campaign underlines that local industry players are rising to the challenge of changing regional and global realities. I applaud the TCF Council’s efforts to raise the industry’s profile and competitiveness, and your commitment to ongoing reform.
I’d like to conclude by making a few reflections on what I see as the significance of tonight’s event.
First, tonight’s launch marks the culmination of the Training and Productivity Improvement Program. It represents a drawing together of all the strands of Australia’s work in, and support for, this sector of the Fiji economy. It’s a celebration of our collaborative efforts to date.
Second, this event reminds us of the natural complementarities of our economies, and of the enormous potential that continues to exist for further growth. This is evident in other sectors of the economy too, not least tourism, where visitors from Australia continue to represent the bedrock of the industry. Indeed, the statistics suggest that in recent years Australia has become a more important source of tourists for Fiji than ever before. Overall, let us not forget that, between us, we have an annual trade in goods and services worth something over two billion dollars.
Thirdly, and finally, our support for the TCF industry in Fiji is a reminder that the Australian Government continues to make a very substantial commitment to Fiji’s development, notwithstanding the differences that have existed between the two countries at the political and official level since December 2006. Those differences remain substantial, they remain real and they remain an obstacle to the normalisation of our relations. This will not be possible until constitutional and civilian government is restored in Fiji.
But within those parameters, Australia will remain committed to doing what it can to support Fiji’s development, whether this is through our assistance in the health sector, in education and training including our scholarship program, in community development, in our various volunteer programs, in disaster and emergency relief or in direct support to the private sector. Indeed, in your own sector, the Australian Government remains open to exploring further opportunities for support.
Thank you once again for inviting me on this occasion, and I look forward to seeing the “Make it in Fiji” website launch and video presentation that are to follow.