Downhill

no more

JOHN Hill, the director of J S Hill Sc Associates, the leaders of the con struction industry in Fiji, has pre dicted a boom which will provide more than 4000 new jobs, a pay hike for work ers, and mark the revival of a fledgeling industry. Construction work on three

major hotel projects scheduled to begin

within the next six months will trigger off a boom Hill says will revive the local

industry.

Work on the first stages of the new Regent Project in Nadi, the two hotels in the Saweni Beach project and the Suva Sheraton has a combined value of Fs3oo million. All are scheduled to start by at least December this year. “The industry is concerned that if these projects start it will go from a famine to a feast,” Hill says. The labour force in the industry had stabilised at 2000 over the past four years. But all three hotel projects will require a labour force of 5200. This means that the industry will need to find an additional 3200 tradesmen, says Hill.

Hill estimates that 1000 tradesmen are currently involved in activities other than the construction industry. There will be a need to attract them to return. Addi tionally, there has been an increasing de mand for commercial and industrial buildings, says Hill. This has been brought about by the economic boom created by the tax free zone incentives and the growth of the manufacturing in

dustry.

An offshoot has been the increasing demand for executive homes which need to be built because of the excessive rental

charges being experienced in Fiji. When

all cylinders are firing, Hill estimates new jobs more than 4000 above the cur rent 2000. The urgent need for trades men will automatically give the current

labour force leverage to negotiate higher

pay than, let us say, the existing basic 90 cents per hour for class two tradesmen.

To attract the other estimated 1000

tradesmen doing other things, employers

like J S Hill Sc Associates need to hike pay levels. They will have to do the same to attract school leavers into the indus try. The expected boom in the construc tion industry is comparable to the boom of the 1970 s which Hill describes as the “heydays” of the construction and build ing industry, a result of the boom in tourism.

The industry experienced a period of

calm through fewer activities in the first six years of the 1980 s. In 1987, the year of the coups in May and September, ab out Fs7o million worth of construction work was done. But the full impact of

the coup was felt a year later in 1988 when it nose-dived to only F 530.5 mil lion. The building and construction in dustry has been the most depressed sec tor since the coup.

People who left Fiji after the coup left behind a glut of homes, commercial and industrial space. As a result prices and

rentals dropped substantially. Mean

while, the two devaluations in 1987 saw building and construction material trad ers adjusting prices upwards. But the 50 per cent hike from that adjusted value has contributed to the 50 per cent in crease in construction costs.

Additionally, the swift reversal in the supply/ demand situation triggered off by the tax free zone incentives saw prices of executive homes going up by 30 per cent to 50 per cent over the past 12 months. The shortage of executive homes from Suva in the east to Lautoka in the west of Viti Levu has seen rentals increase by 50 per cent to 60 per cent over the past year. The total picture had been manifested in the more than doubl ing of the cost of living during the worst period which Hill says is now history.

He has noted an increasing number of people looking to the rural areas, where land is cheaper, as a counter inflationary measure. Hill believes that the building and construction industry is poised to cruise uphill. For the public sector, the two bridges at Sigatoka and Ba and many other smaller ones which have to be built in the major road upgrading projects, which have already started, will generate a lot of employment opportuni ties.

The development of the wharves at two of Fiji’s three ports of entries Lautoka and Levuka will continue to ensure a high level of activities in the

building and construction industry.

“The prospects for the construction in dustry in 1990 and beyond is very bright and by the end of the year we expect to return to full employment,” says Hill.

“We believe there will be further sub stantial investments, barring any major

political upheaval.”

J S Hill Sc Associates is not only a leader in the building and construction industry in Fiji. It has also grown to be one of, the biggest serving the South Pacific region. The company is working on six to seven major and smaller jobs in Vanuatu which include the As 3 million University of the South Pacific campus in Vila, the construction of the SAI.S million Public Works Department com plex and civil engineering jobs on a wharf and a sea wall. It has also carried out wharf repairs in Tuvalu and smaller jobs on home and school construction.

Hill says his company has other jobs in the region. And it is the only Suva-based

company exporting buildings from Fiji.n