After Australia, Fiji looks to China for help with port, shipyard project

Fiji’s PM said his country shared China’s vision for global security and its Belt and Road Initiative ‘aligns with our nation’s development agenda’

Sitiveni Rabuka, who met Xi Jinping last week, told Fiji’s parliament on Wednesday he anticipates ‘potential collaboration with China’ on the project

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Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka shakes hands on Thursday last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the Apec forum in San Francisco. Photo: Xihua

Published: 1:01pm, 22 Nov 2023

Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told parliament on Wednesday the Pacific nation was likely to collaborate with China on a key port modernisation and shipyard project, after discussing it in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Fiji had previously sought Australia’s involvement to build a modern shipbuilding facility at Lautoka, according to officials and a consultant to Rabuka on the project.

China is the world’s largest shipbuilder, accounting for half of all ships built this year. The pace of expansion of its navy has concerned Australia, which has donated dozens of patrol boats to its Pacific neighbours to boost surveillance of their territorial waters.

Locals sit on a wall on the foreshore of the harbour in Fiji’s capital, Suva, in 2014. The Australian government has already funded a feasibility study to explore redevelopment of Fiji’s port facilities. Photo: Reuters

Rabuka told Fiji’s parliament on Wednesday his government was focused on upgrading infrastructure, “particularly the modernisation of port facilities and shipyards”.

“I anticipate potential collaboration with China in that endeavour, given China’s globally competitive shipbuilding,” he said.

Rabuka met Xi for the first time on the sidelines of the Apec forum in San Francisco last week. He said on Wednesday that Fiji shared China’s vision for global security, and that Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative “aligns with our nation’s development agenda”.

Discussions were under way to address Fiji’s “debt crisis” responsibly, he added. Fiji has external debt equivalent to 56 per cent of gross domestic product, most of which is owed to multilateral development banks. The amount also includes FJ$375 million (US$167 million) of China EXIM bank loans taken out almost a decade ago.