Doing business
in the Fiji Islands.

The Fiji Islands sit at a useful intersection. Common-law jurisdiction; English the language of commerce and the courts; the Fijian dollar pegged to a basket of major currencies; a regulatory environment that has moved meaningfully toward international standards over the past five years; and a geographic position that makes Fiji the natural Pacific hub for Australian, New Zealand and Asian businesses extending into the region. For investors who do the work to understand the local framework, the opportunity set is genuine.

This guide is the framework we wish every inbound client had read before their first instruction. It covers what we are most often asked — about the country, the company-law framework, the property regime, the tax environment, banking and exchange control, and the practical machinery of bringing capital into and out of the Fiji Islands.

It is not legal advice, and the position of any individual matter will depend on its facts. But for the international investor or counsel approaching Fiji for the first time, the chapters that follow should answer most of the structural questions — and tell you which questions matter enough to warrant a partner-level conversation.

What changed recently and what you need to know. The Investment Act 2021 replaced the Foreign Investment Act 1999 — the Foreign Investment Registration Certificate (FIRC) is abolished, and the framework now operates through Investment Fiji. The Companies Act 2015 modernised the corporate-law framework with international-standard director-duty provisions. The Land Sales (Amendment) Act 2014 introduced the foreign-purchaser restrictions on town-boundary residential freehold and the FJD 250,000 build-out obligation. The Personal Property Securities Act introduced a national security register. Each of these has implications running through the chapters below.