‘Fiji needs business people who think outside the box’

Fiji needs business people who think outside of the box, says Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

While speaking in Lautoka recently, he explained that global markets have changed significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic which demanded businesses to change their business models.

“With the pandemic the globe has changed significantly,” he said.

“We know that freight costs have gone up significantly, there is a shortage of containers, there is logistical issues and you have a lot of the shipping that comes to Fiji basically goes to Auckland.

“And in Auckland shipping ports have a huge problem with logistics.

“We have containers that sit at Auckland port for about six weeks. That is a huge issue.

“If you look globally too, the services sector in countries like Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada a lot of people don’t want to work in services sector.”

He said New Zealand had a shortage of about 63,000 people to work in the hospitality sector.

“Some of the restaurants don’t open on time because a lot of people don’t want to work as waiters and waitresses only chefs.

“There is a change in the professions that people are pursuing.” He said for this reason businesses needed to think outside of the box.

“You need business people who look at the glass not half empty but actually half full.”