High Commissioner, Australian High Commission, H.E. John Feakes

Chief Executive Officer, Fiji Competition and Consumer Commission, Mr. Joel Abraham

Media representatives,

Good morning to you all.

I am very pleased to be part of this significant development in our partnership with Fiji, signing the agreement with the FCCC, which will assist with its digital transformation and enhance consumer rights and protections.

I am proud to acknowledge that this is the first time UNDP, and indeed any international organization, has engaged formally with the FCCC. I thank the Government of Australia for its generous support, which has made this initiative possible.

The agreement

Under this agreement, UNDP is supporting the FCCC in enhancing its digital complaints management and electronic pricing systems, which will aid businesses in fully complying with national pricing regulations and enhance protection of consumer rights – both of which are critically important given the economic impacts of COVID-19 in Fiji.  

In addition, we will support FCCC in developing a mobile application or an app that will run on tablets and electronic kiosks provided by UNDP, and it will be available to consumers and businesses to download on their smartphones and tablets. 

The app will empower users with its self-guided feature on legal information regarding consumer rights and responsibilities, rights and obligations for businesses, access to the Fiji Universal Price List for essential goods on real time, access to landlord-tenant rules and protections, and more. 

The user-centric digital transformation will help Fijians engage in a fair market practice as consumers and business operators, helping foster a culture of compliance in Fiji and ensuring stability in national markets. 

This is all complemented by 20 tablet computers provided to the FCCC to enhance speed and coverage of FCCC’s inspections, surveys and complaints management in the field – they are already being used to conduct rapid business and pricing surveys to ensure the recent tax reductions enacted in the 2020 National Budget is being passed on effectively to consumers – as intended by the government to spur consumer spending and economic development.  UNDP is also contributing electronic kiosks to the FCCC, to be deployed to high-traffic commerce locations where their physical presence is limited.

In the context of the COVID-19

As part of its immediate response to the impact of the COVID-19, UNDP has been supporting FCCC, who’s been working behind the scenes to protect consumers from price gouging, protect businesses against hoarding, and tenants against rent hikes and evictions, and ensuring stability in the supply of basic essential goods. 

Ensuring people are able to access food, protection of their economic rights, their rights to housing – this is not only a critical humanitarian strategy, it is also critical from a law and order and stability context where the economy has been devastated – it provides an invaluable conflict mitigation tool to reduce the likelihood of community unrest in response to hoarding, shortages of critical food items and fuel, lack of access to essential goods through exploitative pricing, evictions by landlords, that result in shoplifting, burglary and potentially civil unrest. 

REACH community outreach

The FCCC and UNDP have also been engaging in community outreach as part of the public service delivery programme called, ‘Rights, Empowerment and Cohesion for Rural and Urban Fijians’ or also known as the REACH Project, coordinated by Fiji’s Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation in partnership with UNDP with support from the Government of Australia.

The REACH project coordinates multiple public service providers from government agencies and CSOs to bring knowledge and awareness of their services into communities. The REACH service delivery during May to June 2020, targeted Fiji’s informal settlements across the country where knowledge of rights and redress mechanisms are low and the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 are felt the most.

FCCC was supported in providing information and access to their services and fielding of complaints, particularly relating to pricing and landlord-tenant issues, and conducting inspections to ensure local stores are abiding by FCCC consumer rules.  With UNDP’s support, the FCCC delivered 1,182 services to some of Fiji’s most vulnerable citizens, that is 690 women (58%) and 492 men (42%), indicating strong uptake and benefit to women, excellent results all around.  

SDG 16

I believe our partnership will greatly enhance consumer protections, social and economic rights, market stability, which is an essential component of the Sustainable Development Goals particularly goal 16 that promotes just, peaceful and inclusive societies.

I look forward to our further engagement towards our common goal.

Thank you.