A blueprint for success

Identifying commercial opportunities is only the beginning. Fiji must assemble land, capital, management, skills and markets into enterprises capable of surviving and scaling – solving structural problems once, then replicating the solutions. From landlord to enterprise owner CUSTOMARY land has traditionally entered the commercial economy largely through: Land g Lease g Rent. That model remains important, but landowners should also have the option of: Land g Enterprise Participation g Wages + Profits + Dividends + Capital Growth The lease model is not wrong. It is incomplete. The objective should be: Protect Customary Ownership + Expand Commercial Participation. That requires separating: Customary Land Title ≠ Commercial Land-Use Rights ≠ Enterprise Ownership. Customary title remains protected while enterprises receive defined land-use rights for an agreed purpose and period. Fiji's National Development Plan and Solesolevaki framework provide foundations, while Aviva Farms, Tifajek Mud Pool & Hot Spring and Nayarabale Youth Farm show that customary land, community participation and enterprise can coexist. The challenge is to standardise and scale. Standardise the enterprise architecture Fiji could standardise landowner enterprise vehicles (LEVs) using existing lawful structures — companies, trusts, cooperatives, special-purpose vehicles or joint ventures — without creating a new form of land title. What should be standardised is the commercial architecture: Land-Use Rights + Enterprise Equity + Governance + Professional Management + Distribution Rules + Reporting + Dispute Resolution Enterprises could be wholly landowner-owned or include strategic investors, professional operators, PALM/RSE returnees or patient capital. Where scale requires several landowning units, commercial-use rights could be voluntarily aggregated without combining or transferring customary titles: Aggregate economic use without aggregating customary ownership. Above all: Commercialise the productive use of the land, not its ownership. Make enterprises bankable, not grant-dependent Protecting customary title raises a financing question: What will banks lend against? More importantly: Where will repayment come from? A bankable enterprise begins with: Contracted Buyer + Costed Production Plan + Professional Management + Reliable Supply + Financial Records Security can combine equity, receivables, enterprise assets and permitted leasehold interests, with risk-sharing facilities where viable enterprises still face financing gaps. The answer to a collateral problem is not always more collateral. Sometimes it is stronger cash flow. Finance should then graduate through: Savings/Equity g Patient Capital g Contracted Revenue g Commercial Debt g Retained Earnings g Expansion Finance g Ordinary Banking. Government support should make viable enterprises financeable, not unviable enterprises borrowable. A powerful measure of success is how many supported enterprises graduate into ordinary commercial finance within three to five years. Turn PALM and RSE into enterprise capital PALM and RSE returnees can bring experience, skills and savings into productive opportunities: PALM/RSE g Skills g Savings g Enterprise Matching g Co-Investment g Ownership Not every returnee must become an entrepreneur; enterprises also need managers, technicians, operators and investors. The objective is to convert temporary labour mobility, where possible, into permanent productive capacity at home. Ownership requires professional management Collective ownership brings governance challenges: Multiple beneficiaries, competing priorities and pressure to distribute rather than reinvest. The solution is separation of roles: Community Mandate g Board Governance g Professional Management Landowners determine major strategic conditions; boards provide oversight; professional managers run the business. The architecture must also guard against elite capture. Benefits should not become concentrated among office-holders, politically connected investors or advisers. Beneficial ownership, board appointments, related-party transactions and distributions should be transparent and auditable. Publicly supported enterprises should require proper accounts, conflict-of-interest rules, reinvestment policies and performance reporting. Public support should follow measurable performance—not political access. The standard should be: Indigenous Ownership + Commercial Excellence. Solve the architecture once Government cannot create or run 5000 successful companies. Its role is to build the platform: Rules + Enterprise Architecture + Infrastructure + Finance + Skills + Markets + Accountability. Government should not pick 5000 winners. It should build a system capable of producing thousands of competitors. If every enterprise must independently solve land, governance, finance, contracts, accounting and compliance, Fiji will struggle to scale. A permanent mechanism involving TLTB, FDB, banks, FIBC, government, professional advisers and landowners could standardise land-use agreements, enterprise structures, governance, finance, offtake and investment-readiness. Validated models could then be replicated across horticulture, poultry, kava processing, cold chains, tourism supply, forestry and other opportunities. Solve once g Standardise g Replicate g Scale TLTB should retain its land-protection and administration roles while strengthening its commercial-enabling role. The broader institutional principle is simple: Measure leases, and institutions produce leases. Measure grants, and they produce grants. Measure registrations, and they produce registrations. Measure productive enterprises, and they produce businesses, jobs and wealth. Government procurement can help emerging enterprises establish track records through subcontracting, joint ventures and tenders, subject to transparent eligibility, performance and graduation: Opportunity g Track Record g Capability g Scale g Open Competition. Measure the journey to 5000 The enterprise pipeline should be explicit: Enterprise Pipeline g Investment-Ready g Financed g Operating g Surviving g Scaling g 5000 Sustainable Enterprises And the arithmetic transparent: New Enterprises − Closures = Net Enterprise Growth An annual iTaukei Enterprise Dashboard should track active firms, closures, survival, employment, turnover, capital mobilised, graduation to commercial finance, imports replaced, exports and movement from micro to larger enterprises. The first year should establish Fiji-specific formation, closure and survival rates, allowing the required pipeline to be recalculated annually against the 2034 target. The ultimate objective is not 5000 registration certificates. It is 5000 sustainable owners of productive capacity – farmers, processors, tourism suppliers, forestry and fisheries enterprises, manufacturers, construction firms, renewable-energy companies, logistics businesses, technology firms, brands and exporters. The deeper transition is: Land + Labour + Capital + Management + Technology g Enterprise g Production g Value Addition g Import Substitution g Exports g Capital Formation g Intergenerational Wealth. Fiji already possesses much of the land, labour, market opportunity and institutional foundation. The task is to connect them through a repeatable commercial system. Do not build 5000 companies simply to meet a target. Build 5000 enterprises that produce, employ, add value, supply tourism, competitively replace imports, export and accumulate capital. Do that, and the 5000-company target becomes more than an indigenous economic-empowerment program. It becomes part of Fiji's national economic transformation strategy. n SUNIL CHAND is an engineer and reform strategist with over 30 years of senior leadership experience across manufacturing, regulation and higher education, including strategic and operational roles at Fiji Industries Ltd/Pacific Cement (1994–2003), FCCC (2007–2009) and USP (2010–2019). The views expressed herein are his own and not those of this newspaper.