Pacific Magazine > Magazine > December 1, 2001

Business Briefs

Business Briefs

By Giff Johnson


Pacific

Local buyers examine the most recent harvest from RRE's pearl farm in the Marshall Islands.

  • The ANZ Group announced in October it had agreed to acquire the Bank of Hawaii’s operations in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Fiji, further consolidating ANZ’s leading position in retail and commercial banking in the Pacific Islands. ANZ expects to complete the Bank of Hawaii purchase by the end of this month, subject to regulatory approvals. ANZ Group Managing Director Subsidiaries & International Elmer Funke Kupper said the acquisition moved ANZ closer to its ambition to double the size of its Pacific business.

    Marshall Islands

  • Demonstrating the economic potential of pearl oyster growing in the Marshall Islands, Robert Reimers Enterprises produced its second relatively large harvest of pearls in18 months during October, estimated in value at about $50,000. RRE’s chief financial officer Peter Fuchs said that overall, the pearls “are better quality than last year. We used new techniques, and we’ve learned.” In addition, the percentage of the yield increased this year, he said. But while RRE CEO Ramsey Reimers contends that “Pearls are the economic future of the Marshall Islands,” both he and Fuchs believe that pearl growing in the Marshall Islands is suffering from a lack of government interest and funding that could take what is now a fledging business out of “pilot project” status and develop it into a full-scale locally-based export industry. Reimers and Fuchs pointed to Tahiti, which sells about $200 million of pearls annually, as an example of what the pearl industry could be locally.

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    Hawaii

  • Hawaii-based family-owned business Cosco celebrated its 40th anniversary recently. It started off as a refrigerator service and supply operation and over the years has evolved to an air conditioning/refrigerator wholesale distributor with outlets in several of the Hawaiian islands that also provide products to the Pacific Islands. As part of ongoing expansion plans, the company is seeking dealers in Guam and other parts of the Pacific.

    Photo: Giff Johnson

     

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