There are fears ni-Vanuatu retailers in Port Vila will lose their businesses as a result of tough competition from a growing Chinese population.
Many Chinese families have lived in Vanuatu for generations, integrating well with ni-Vanuatu but new arrivals from China over the last two decades have dominated the retail and wholesale sector and driven up competition.
One ni-Vanuatu shopkeeper, Jeosephat Lo'au, says the new groups of Chinese are smarter at doing business and fears ni-Vanuatu retailers will cease to exist if the government doesn't help them.
"Chinese, they operate through their networks somehow that we cannot really compete with them. They get their stuff from probably direct from China and they fill up their shop very well. What their arrangements, just makes it that we cannot see how we can compete to their level of running the retail shops around this area."
Jeosephat Lo'au says the government needs to look seriously introducing a policy to protect ni-Vanuatu retailers.
