Politics of preferential development by Steven Ratuva

Author:Steven Ratuva [Steven Ratuva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ANU E Press
Published: 2013-08-12T14:00:00+00:00

Equity Investment Management Company Limited (EIMCOL)

The Equity Investment Management Company Limited (EIMCOL) was set up in 1990 as a successor to the Business Opportunity and Management Advisory Service (BOMAS), set up in 1975 to “work solely with the Fijians”, and to help them in their endeavour to enter the commercial world (Hailey 1992: 12).23

EIMCOL, unlike the CLFS, was not directly part of the FDB’s portfolio but was a semi-autonomous project, established in 1990, and administered and facilitated by the FDB after BOMAS, originally attached to the FAB, collapsed.24 The aim was to “assist Fijians and Rotumans enter the retail trade...long-term venture designed to school the participants in the commercial disciplines of retailing” (Qarase 1995: 21). The EIMCOL project was to be a national show piece for the FDB by producing indigenous Fijian supermarket managers. Unlike the CLFS projects, where clients ran their own business, EIMCOL stores were to be run directly by FDB. The idea was based on the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Stret Pasin Store (Street Fashion Store) model, where PNG nationals served as trainees in small Chinese shops, learning basic knowledge and skills of retailing at a micro level. In many ways, the PNG project served its purpose initially, but as a result of the general social unrest and lawlessness, retailing declined dramatically. The FDB sent one of its senior executives to PNG to study the project and, upon his return, enthusiastically recommended its implementation in Fiji. But instead of starting small by training clients for small retailing activities, the FDB embarked on a “think big” project by training supermarket managers. Applicants were restricted to indigenous Fijians and Rotumans, who were vetted and put on a training program with Carpenters Group, a major corporation with links to FHL, for six months.25

Upon completion of training, the successful “trainee managers” (as they were officially called) were allocated a supermarket each to run but were directly accountable to the FDB. The supermarkets were owned by a series of EIMCOL limited liability companies (i.e. each shop was owned by an EIMCOL company), with the FDB and government as shareholders and funders. The government contributed one-third (FJ$3 million) and the FDB two thirds, (FJ$6 million) of the interest-free loan. EIMCOL management monitored the performance and provided instructions and supervision occasionally. Ownership of the shop was to be transferred to the trainee after 15 years, or earlier, depending on the completion of the full loan repayment. By 1992, nine shops, located mainly around the capital, Suva, had been purchased at different prices, and were run by EIMCOL trainee managers.

Within two years of its beginning, EIMCOL began to go through a series of crises, which led to its collapse. On 31 December 1991, the General Manager was sacked and was replaced. In late 1992 three EIMCOL supermarkets (Natokawaqa, Navua and Bureta Street)26 were closed, and on 17 September 1993, the remaining six supermarkets were sold to the store managers, despite the FDB’s initial promise that ownership would not be transferred until satisfactory payment of the loans had been made.

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