Questions continue to be raised at Fiji's Nadarivatu Dam about the number of workers from China to be employed and conditions for local employees.
Union representatives and a local landowners council have written to Immigration asking for explanations about increases in the number of foreign workers.
Local employees have also staged protests about a lack of compliance with health and safety laws by the company building the dam, Sino Hydro Corporation.
The Programme Director of the Myer Foundation on Melanesia at the Lowy Institute, Jenny Hayward-Jones, says while Chinese companies have world-wide experience it doesn't always mean they are up to speed with local regulations:
"I think the difficulty is that they just struggle to deal with local communities and the lack of regulation in the Pacific probably helps them get away with a bit of loose work and then holding them to account is much more difficult in the Pacific where governments don't have the capacity to check on things and make sure new companies abiding by law."
Jenny Hayward-Jones of the Australian based Lowy Institute
The new hydro-power station in the highlands of Nadarivatu is predicted to save the Fiji Electricity Authority about 11 million US dollars every year.
The project is scheduled to be complete in 2011.