Fiji gets more formal

but retains special relationship with NZ

Fiji’s dealings with New Zea land are not quite so free and easy as they once were. They are tending to become more formal and at times almost cool as trade and aid dealings be tween the two countries become more complex, and as emotions about such matters as shipping

and civil aviation are stirred up by regional politics.

But associations going back to the middle of the last century are not something which can be erased overnight. Fiji’s relations with the Land of the Long White Cloud, 1800 kilometres to the south are probably its

closest with any other country but Britain.

New Zealand’s education system, once the foundation stone of Fiji’s, is fast being displaced as the Fiji Education Department rewrites its sylla bus to suit local needs. However hundreds of Fiji secondary school children still sit for New Zealand university entrance examinations and scores of Fiji students study at New Zealand higher education institutions.

New Zealand remains Fiji’s second biggest source of foreign aid after Australia and, again after Australia, is its second source of imports and tourists.

The Fiji Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kaminsese Mara from time to time is involved in disagree ments with Prime Minister Robert Muldoon which when viewed superficially, suggest that the two countries are not on the best of terms. But a New Zealander continues to head Fiji’s small army, New Zealand troops are welcome visitors sev eral times a year on jungle warfare exercises and each time

a hurricane or other disaster strikes, New Zealand air force helicopters are ferried north.

Until late 1979, when Fiji opened a high commission office in Wellington, most dealings between the two countries took place through the New Zealand high commission in Suva. Trade and aid matters occupy much of the time of the two com missions. Fiji’s approach is be coming more aggressive as it seeks to persuade New Zealand to close a trade gap between the two countries (the gap is in New Zealand’s favour) or presses for a bigger share for its own airline, Air Pacific, of air traffic between Nadi and Auckland that in the past has been almost the exclusive preserve of Air New Zealand.

The trade gap narrowed in the past two years as New Zealand’s purchases of sugar rose from 40 000 tonnes to 60 000 tonnes annually and as Fiji’s exports of timber, fruit and vegetables rose slowly.

Fiji’s exports to new Zealand rose from $15.4 million in 1979

to $29 million last year, and there is scope for doing much better if Fiji businessmen make use of the new South Pacific regional trade agreement,

Sparteca.

Purchases from New Zea land rose from $59 million in 1979 to $67.5 million last year, but New Zealand exporters are coming under increasing pres sure of competition from Aus tralia, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and other suppliers.

The SPARTECA arrange ment should remove many of the gripes that Fiji sounded in the past about its products being denied entry to New Zealand by tariff and quota barriers.

Although trade develop ments are to Fiji’s general satisfaction its tourist industry is alarmed by a slump in New Zealand tourist traffic, which in 1980 dived by 18% to 36 000 visitors as New Zealand’s own economic troubles made travel less attractive for its people.

New Zealand’s aid, running

at $6 million a year, is financing some of Fiji’s biggest develop ment projects and a host of smaller ones. It’s especially appreciated because unlike New Zealand aid for most other countries there are no strings attached to it.

New Zealand’s banking, in surance and commercial rep resentation in Fiji is prominent in all main towns. Direct New Zealand investment in manu facturing, tourism and other business tends to be shaded by the dominance of Australian interest.

However New Zealand entre preneurs are becoming more active, particularly in food pro cessing, with the help of the New Zealand government’s Pacific Islands Industrial De velopment scheme. The scheme provides various types of assist ance in setting up joint venture enterprises in the South Pacific.

A dozen such businesses have been launched in Fiji since the scheme began two years ago and at least a dozen others are at an advanced stage.