Business Briefs - South Edition
Business Briefs - South Edition
New Caledonia
A Russian nickel mining company, Norilsk, is engaged in negotiations to
join a local miner, SMT, and an Australian company, Argosy, in opening a
nickel plant in the Canala region on the east coast of New Caledonia.
Norilsk said it was willing to finance the estimated US$24 million cost of
preliminary studies.
n A 30,000-million (US$233 million) resort scheme to be located at Maa Bay,
Paita, has been announced by Seapark International, a US company.
The 170-hectare scheme will include a casino, 18-hole golf course, spa
centre and hotels managed by two large US hotel chains. Assisted by generous
tax concessions, construction of the resort is expected to begin in the
first quarter of next year.
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea's fishing industry is expected to earn K200 million in
revenue this year, according to fisheries minister Ron Ganarafo. From the
1980s to 1995 earnings were only between K8 to K10 million a year. He
attributed the industry's growth to domestic investment, reduced import
duties and export tax exemption.
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Fiji
Fiji's real GDP this year will see growth of 1 per cent, down from an
earlier forecast of 4.8 percent, according to the Reserve Bank of Fiji.
The bank expects slower global growth to affect export sales while locally such major industries as garments, sugar and the wholesale and retail trade are not doing as well as initially expected. However, non-sugar agriculture, fishing and tourism growth should partially compensate for sluggish performance in other areas. The value of sugar exports is expected to drop by about 1.3 per cent on the 2000 figure to around F$237.8 million.
Tourism figures are ahead of forecasts by the Fiji Visitors Bureau. Factory closures have affected garment exports to Australia but the US market, accounting for about 40 per cent of total garment earnings last year, is performing well.
Vanuatu
Vanuatu finance minister Joe Carlo is advocating the creation of a Pacific
Forum Island Nations Association of Regulators of Offshore Financial
Services. He told participants in a registrars of financial and banking
services meeting in Port Vila that the region¹s tax haven countries are
under constant international interference, particularly from the OECD
group, to curb their financial service business with tighter regulation.
Little effort is made to take a common stand on some of these issues as a
group, he says.
