Business Briefs
Business Briefs
Northern Marianas
Revenues generated by the CNMI government from the apparel manufacturing industry 3 three percent in 2000 from the previous year, indicating a dramatic slowdown in the volume of orders from mainland buyers. This does not come as a surprise though, since industry players had projected that fewer garment products will be exported by Saipan manufacturers to the U.S. due to pressures from the Clinton Administration and a billion-dollar class action suit.
The Department of Commerce, disclosed revenues generated from garment certification fees dropped to $9.6 million last year from $9.825 million in 1999, while user fee collections from apparel exports in the first three quarters of 2000 totaled $28.7 million, down by 2.3 percent from the previous year. This was a product of apparel exports to the U.S. by over 30 garment companies on Saipan declining to $776 million in the January-September 2000 period, down 1.3 percent from the previous year.
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Guam
Guam Telephone Authority’s newly initiated Internet service called GuamTel.net, which uses high speed Digital Subscriber Lines, has been disconnected through an order by Superior Court Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood. The judge ordered the telephone authority to stop offering the service and ordered that all of the 400 current subscribers be disconnected until she reaches a final decision on the merits of a lawsuit that states GTA doesn’t have legal authority to be a Internet service provider under the authority’s enabling legislation.
Several private ISP’s, including Kuentos Communications, GUAMCELL Communications and ITE&E, filed suit in early December vigorously opposing GTA’s entry into the already saturated market. GTA had spent about $5 million to launch its high-speed Internet and ISP businesses. A trial is expected to begin either in late March or early April.
Tourist arrivals on Guam increased 25 percent to 119,395 to begin the new year as compared to a 95,573 figure a year ago. This has bolstered the Guam Visitor Bureau’s hope for 1.5 million tourists by the end of this year. GVB General Manager James Nelson said Guam can now comfortably say that tourism has really recovered and arrival numbers are improving every month. He stated that the bureau’s aggressive marketing, which includes television advertisements and promotional articles in magazines that target niche markets in Japan, helped Guam tourism recover. In December, hotel occupancy was 59 percent, up 4 percent from December 1999.
New Caledonia
New Caledonia’s nickel production, generally acknowledged as being the world’s third largest, has netted a record 70 billion French Pacific Francs (about US$560 million) in export sales. This resulted from the export of around seven and a half million tons of nickel and its by-products, a 13 percent rise compared to 1999, and the best figure in twelve years. The main buyers of New Caledonian nickel were Japan
and Australia.
Since the inception of the first "nakamals" (kava bars) in New Caledonia in the early 1990s, the kava craze, which was imported from neighboring Vanuatu, has steadily grown in the French territory of New Caledonia, the daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes reported. It has become a lucrative business, with an estimated 100 public consumption places. Health officials are now monitoring the kava bars more closely, and requiring that more stringent hygiene regulations be followed.
The nakamals have added a new phenomenon to the territory: kava bar owners say this is one of the only places in the French territory where all ethnic groups mix and socialize, regardless of race or social background.
Cook Islands
Last year produced a record high for Cook Islands tourism, Cook Islands Tourism Corporation chief executive Tony Wong confirmed. Total visitor arrivals for the year were 72,994, an increase of 31 percent over the 1999 figure of 55,599. The number of Australian visitors nearly doubled in 2000, going from 6,347 the year before to 11,194 last year. European and New Zealand visitor numbers increased 29 and 27
percent, respectively.
Kosrae
Kosrae’s fledgling visitor industry saw a nearly 11 percent rise in tourists during 2000, the country’s tourism office reports. While the numbers are still small — 2,350 visitors to Kosrae in 2000 — they are increasing. In 1987, Kosrae welcomed its first jet plane. There were only about four visitors for that entire week. Today, 14 years later, flights to Kosrae carry an average of 48 people per week, half of whom are visitors.
Tonga
Tonga’s newest company, Tonga Telecommunications Commission, began operations in February, providing both local and international telephone services. For the past two years, the Tongan Government has been preparing for the move, which included the termination of international telecommunication services provided by Cable & Wireless
Tonga Ltd.
—Contributors: Aldwin R. Fajardo, Eric F. Say, Fili Sagapolutele, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, PINA Nius Online and Radio Australia.
