Our Chief Guest, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Co-operatives, SMEs and Communications, Honourable Manoa Kamikamica,
Permanent Secretaries,
Project Managers, Spirit of Endeavour, Mr. K V Soon, and Mr. Nantha,
Technical Partner, Vice President of Toppan Ecquaria, Ser Wah Chong,
Chief Executive Officers,
Our partner Ministries and Agencies, Senior Officials
Invited Guests,
Bula Vinaka and a very warm welcome to you all.
It is with great pleasure that I extend a warm welcome to the launch of the new and improved “doing business” Portal, a successor to the earlier “bizFiji”.
As you will hear from the Honourable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Co-operatives, SMEs and Communications, we have developed a tool designed to facilitate and grow business in Fiji.
So what is New? Apart from the new name – BusinessNow Fiji – the new portal is customer-focused, geared especially to those that are intending to venture into business.
More importantly, it creates an information hub for MSMEs and Investors as well. This involves providing the right information, the right support and the right tools – at the right time.
Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned business professional, BusinessNow will be your go-to resource for efficient and hassle-free service. A game changer.
Everything you want to know about “Starting A Business” or “Obtaining Construction Permits” will now be at your fingertips.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you are aware, these are two key elements of doing business. However, we are not stopping here.
This Portal will keep evolving, ultimately into a comprehensive solution that completely digitises and streamline starting a business process and obtaining construction permits.
In addition, as part of our efforts to improve Fiji’s Ease of Doing Business, our efforts to simplify and streamline complex, outdated and unnecessarily cumbersome procedures will also continue.
Our aim is to create a single Integrated Permit and License Approval Platform that provides the majority of business related approval services on a single platform.
The BusinessNow Platform is an important step in achieving this vision and epitomises the reform focus of the Fiji Government.
The Platform will support the full digitisation of Starting a Business Process and Obtaining Construction Permits.
These two processes will showcase what can be achieved and act as a proof-of-concept for other business approvals and government processes to use the Platform.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the agencies that have been involved in the digitalisation process so far. [Special thanks to the PSs and CEOs of SAB and OCP.] We will continue to call on your support as we endeavour to deliver on ease of doing business to our Businesses Community, MSMEs and Investors.
At this juncture, I would also like to acknowledge the Project Managers of the Ease of Doing Business Project, Spirit of Endeavour, who worked tirelessly with the Ministry, to prepare for the launch of the businessNOW portal.
Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the great pleasure to acknowledge our Chief Guest who has guided the Ease of Doing Business Project at every step. He has been instrumental in the progress we have made thus far and no doubt will continue to guide the team to achieve our aim of easing business in Fiji.
I now invite the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Trade, C-ooperatives, SMEs and Communications to give his keynote address and officially launch the BusinessNow Portal.
Vinaka.