Transcript
CHANDAR SEN: The business council has not had a single member raised this as an issue and you know we had a huge growth in our membership over the last three years. In fact we had quite a few new members join this calendar year. And now one has raised any issues about landlaws to us at the moment.
JO O'BRIEN: Okay we have actually talked to some New Zealand citizens who do have land in Fiji and they are very concerned because they feel that, you know now they are facing fines and imprisonment and they can't afford to build houses as they are required to under this law. Are you concerned for them for those New Zealanders who are in that situation.
CS: To be honest with you I can only comment on the business council's behalf that is the role I am speaking to you in and so long as our members don't complain to us or have issues with us. Really we can't speak on behalf of other New Zealand citizens or Fiji citizens.
JO:Do you have concerns that it, there has been a lot of publicity around the issue, that it could hurt Fiji's reputation and deter investment?
CS: I mean we would be very concerned that we were subjected to impractical unworkable laws. So of course why would we go to a location where it is unhelpful. But as far as Fiji is concerned New Zealand businesses seem to be going up there and I can only talk for businesses that are generally our members. And so for what we are doing we are investing in businesses or operating as businesses in Fiji. And I guess purchase of land is not really a big issue there we probably lease land or lease property for our businesses and this hasn't really deterred any member that I can talk of.
JO: So how would you described the overall relationship between New Zealand and Fiji at the moment from a business perspective?
CS: It is at an all time high. Members are investing they are writing millions of dollars worth of business in Fiji and quite frankly we are not seeing any stopping or slowing down of our New Zealand member companies charging on as they were at the beginning of this year or at the beginning of the year prior really. The value of trade between the two countries is approaching a billion dollars between New Zealand and Fiji. It is not insignificant it is not an economy that anyone would want to sort of shy away from and the New Zealand government which you know is the line we follow as a business entity has no issues with any of the laws in Fiji. Then it would not be fair to say we have a problem. If you ask me to sum it up our businesses seems to be business as usual no one has had a issue. If there is a group of people who have a problem then I could suggest that group maybe small and they need to resolve the problem in a manner that gets resolved. Not taking a scatter gun approach and writing to every person and trying to get attention from elsewhere but engaging in dialogue.