Consistency in policies will continue if we are in Govt – Sayed-Khaiyum

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says they will have consistency in policies and that consistency will continue if they are in Government.

Sayed-Khaiyum highlighted this during the Fiji Chamber of Commerce and Industry panel discussion while responding to a question by Naisoso Island Developer, Bob Lowry.

Lowry had asked if the government can give unconditional assurance if policies such as the removal of stamp duty and other incentives for real estate businesses will continue.

He says he is convinced there is a boom coming in real estate as he has been in the business for 45 years and has seen the ups and the downs.

Lowry says he is worried that when they sell all these apartments, they will be leaving themselves exposed.

He further says some of the areas he believes Fiji fails badly in is assisting people to do major projects, Fiji does not have enough money to lend and there is also a need for Fiji to have a merchant bank and perhaps the government can be involved in it. Lowry says he believes the government should be setting up a merchant bank as it has the ability to borrow funds from the Middle East at a very low rate, lend it to people like him and make a profit on it.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the continuation of policies will depend on who is in government.

He says in terms of venture capital, various institutions can come together and set aside a certain percentage of contribution and set up a venture provider entity which perhaps the government could participate in.

Sayed-Khaiyum says you cannot expect the government at this point in time to carry the burden to have $100 million to $300 million available for specific projects which the mainstream banks do not want to finance.

He adds if the private sector rallies around and if all the banks set aside 10% then maybe FNPF might even join in.

Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda, CEO, Lekshmy Anand says this could be something they can bring up in their Association of Banks in Fiji monthly meetings while ANZ Banking Group CEO, Rabih Yazbeg says a syndicated approach is available in Fiji and was executed for EFL a couple of years ago but the deal has to be bankable.