Page 20 - IB July 2020

Business Business

Fiji made and export-ready products.
HOW TO LURE INVESTORS IN A

PANDEMIC

“IT’S HOW YOU PLAN, PREPARE AND EXECUTE”

By Dionisia Tabureguci year. We’ve got to get the basics right. We’ve got to make
sure our customer experience is right. We’ve got to make sure
Craig Strong, the new CEO of Investment Fiji is unflinching, that the commodities we’re targeting to drive into our target
even amused when I flip him the now obvious cliché: how do markets are aligned with what our capacity and capabili-
you market Fiji as an attractive investment destination when ties are here. And also then making sure that the key sectors
life, and indeed business as we know it, just flew out the we’re trying to grow here in Fiji are partnering with some of
window? that capital floating around the global capital markets and
With COVID-19 still a very real health threat globally, inter- to be able to bring that capital to Fiji and partner with Fijian
national travel hamstrung and a global economic meltdown businesses or projects as we move through.”
eating its way into economies everywhere, I’m curious to COVID-19 is now entrenched in the daily life of every
know what it’s like to be CEO of a government arm whose citizen; there is no need to reiterate the radical impact it has
twofold task is: to promote Fiji internationally as an ideal had upon the global economy.
investment destination, hence attract foreign investment dol- Some are daunted by the idea that it has turned the world
lars; and to drum up exports to strengthen Fiji’s foreign dollar turned upside-down.
earning ability. And then you have the likes of Strong whose extensive and
Reality check, he quickly reminded me: any business colourful business career in Fiji and New Zealand means he’s
anywhere in the world will tell you those days flew out the been through enough business cycles to know this will eventu-
window in March. Measured against the coronavirus pandemic ally pass.
time, that seems like such a long time ago. “Businesses haven’t stopped,” said Strong in this exclusive
Global business had now advanced well into the “next interview with Islands Business.
normal” and Investment Fiji was already busy positioning Fiji “If you look at global stock markets, those prices aren’t
globally via webinars and locally through various meetings he plummeting. They’re still very buoyant. The world closed
has had with exporters and potential exporters all over Fiji. down very quick. There are some sectors, as we mobilise,
And in any case, he added, any financial year is unchartered will mobilise very quickly so what we have to do is be in the
waters. best position by being pro-active, by having the right plan, by
Business success, at the mercy of many factors, ultimately executing well, having the right processes and actually having
boiled down to three basic things: “how you plan, how you the right bench-strength to execute that plan. So this is the
prepare and how you execute.” opportunity because the deck chairs of the global economic
“It’s that simple. Plan, prepare, execute,” said Strong, who ecosystem are shuffling. And if I look back prior to my birth,
started in the role in early May, barely a month after much of I can only look at post World War Two – 1945, where you had
the world went into coronavirus lockdown. this kind of reshuffling. New trading blocks, new trading part-
“I don’t see any difference in going into a financial year ners, totally different environment, you had massive rebuild
with this approach, whether it’s been a COVID or non-COVID in different continents that would fuel broad-based economic

20 Islands Business, July 2020