Fiji's economy is predominantly a services economy and approximately 70 percent of the country’s GDP is comprised of services.
This was highlighted by the Permanent Secretary for Trade, Cooperatives, SME’s and Communications Shaheen Ali while officiating at the opening of the Advanced Pacific Regional Trade in Services and Project Proposal Workshop.
Ali says trade in services is very important and has grown faster than trade in goods.
He says it is one of the most dynamic segments of international trade and a vital aspect of global value chains and economic development.
Ali says for Fiji, the services sector a vital component of the economy and encompassing areas such as tourism, finance, telecommunications and professional services.
He adds in 2022, Fiji’s economy grew by about 16 percent and although the RBF estimates this to be higher, services contributed about 80 percent of that growth.
Ali says this is also largely at the back of tourism.
He says last year, there was an 8 percent growth and again it was largely underpinned by the growth in tourism.
Ali says one can now conclude that Fiji’s post-COVID recovery has been largely shouldered by strong growth in services, particularly tourism services.
Ali further says this growth has also had a multiplier or positive impact on complementary sectors and services, such as transport, wholesale and retail and other MSMEs that are connected to the local tourism supply chain.
He says tourism alone accounts for 40 percent of our GDP and that has been validated and repeated over and over again by RBF.
He adds the estimates show that over half of our employment, close to 60 percent is through tourism and other related services and other emerging services are also coming up like business processing.
The Permanent Secretary says, tourism and services play an important role, not only in Fiji, but Pacific Island countries as well.
