Briefs
Business
French Polynesia
A new attempt is being made to run a newspaper in the French territory of Wallis and Futuna, with the relaunching of Te Fenua Fo‘ou under local ownership. It comes seven months after the weekly’s former French publisher ran into problems with local traditional leaders over the paper’s reporting. Te Fenua was forced to close after action by the traditional police force of the local king.
According to a report in the New Caledonian daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes, the revived paper is being run by Samino Foloka, who has been an administrator for the Catholic school system. He and two other shareholders are reported to be behind the revival. He was quoted as saying it’s better not to always wait for foreign investors. Foloka and his partners are hoping to also tap the large Wallis and Futuna market in another French territory, New Caledonia, where there are an estimated 20,000 people of Wallis and Futuna descent living, more than the 15,000 back in Wallis and Futuna.
—PINA
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Marshall Islands
Bank of Marshall Islands celebrated its 20th year of operations with a big ceremony at the end of September in front of its downtown branch in Majuro. Underlining the significance of the bank to the country, the Nitijela (parliament) immediately recessed its regular 10 a.m. session so members could attend the program. More than 100 Ebeye residents, led by Iroij Michael Kabua, also came to Majuro for the events, which included, in the lead up to the anniversary, a month of basketball, softball, volleyball and canoe paddling competitions. Bank President Patrick Chen said that, from its beginning with one Majuro branch, the bank has expanded to include an Ebeye and Majuro airport branch, mobile services on government field trip ship, and opened a mobile bank on Santo Island in Kwajalein Atoll.
—GJ
Air Nauru is aiming to launch a direct Australia-Marshall Islands service, while shrugging off the label of being one of the Pacific’s least reliable air carriers. John Goulding, the airline’s regional manager in Melbourne, and Michael Aroi, the Nauru and Micronesia manager, visited Majuro in September to scope out possibilities for a Brisbane-Nauru-Majuro-Tarawa-Nadi and return route. The main hurdle to this proposed flight is the Kiribati government’s plan to launch competing Tarawa-Majuro service with its recently acquired ATR-72.
—GJ
Pacific International Inc., the largest construction company in the Marshall Islands, asked the High Court to revive the trial schedule against the U.S. Army because of the “bad faith misrepresentation and abusive litigation practices” of the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll. Originally filed in 1995, PII’s lawsuit was put on hold two years ago when PII believed it had agreement with the Army to settle the case through “alternative dispute resolution.”
—GJ
Palau
Palau Trans Pacific Airlines, a new, Palau-based operation, announced plans to begin twice-weekly flights between Koror and Taipei beginning in November, after reaching an agreement with Taiwan’s Mandarin Airlines. Currently, only Taiwan’s Far Eastern Air Transport provides air links between Palau and the Republic of China, the second-largest source of tourists for the Micronesian nation, behind only Japan. Under the agreement, signed on September 23, Palau Trans Pacific will lease a 168-passenger capacity Boeing 737-800 from Mandarin, which will also provide crew, maintenance and insurance for the plane. Palau Trans Pacific’s chairman, Frank Ho, touted the new airline as a way to bring more tourists to Palau, especially from Europe and North America, due to the reduced flight times and costs involved with flying through Taipei. The airline also hopes to add flights between Palau and Korea and Hong Kong in the future.
—RS
Problems continue to bedevil two firms working on Palau’s major capital projects. In September, heavy equipment belonging to Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. was vandalized, and Palau Vice President Sandra S. Pierantozzi sued the firm for allegedly trespassing on her private property during its construction efforts on the 53-mile long Compact Road. Meanwhile, seven Palauan legislators sent a letter to President Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr. asking him to preclude Black Micro Corporation, a major builder of Palau’s new capital complex in Melekeok State, from bidding on future contracts for the new capital. In the letter, two senators and five delegates raised concerns about Black Micro’s performance on previous projects. Black Micro area manager Dean Bates defended the company’s record, citing the “professionalism and high quality of materials and workmanship that (Black Micro) has and will continue to incorporate into the capital project.”
—RS
Guam
Guam tourist arrivals dropped 16 percent in August compared to August 2001. The 111,182 visitors is the lowest August arrival total since at least 1996, according to Guam Visitors Bureau figures. Traditionally a peak month for visitor arrivals, the August arrivals topped 110,000 for the first time since the previous August and topped 100,000 for only second time. A continuing bright spot is the increase of Korean visitors by 50 percent over the previous August, from 10,457 to 15,653. On the other hand, Guam welcomed 82,787 visitors from Japan, its largest market, 21 percent less than 104,989 a year ago.
—FW
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks reverberated heavily in the value of Guam real estate, a market that was already seeing the bottom drop out. The Captain Company, a real estate appraisal firm in Guam, reports that in 1989 a lot fronting a golf course sold for $2.3 million, an incredible $481 per square meter. Twelve years later, September 2001, Citizens Security Bank foreclosed on the property, eventually unloading it for $130,000 — just $27 per square meter.
—GJ
Samoa
Roman Catholic Church members are expressing the need to increase donations to halt the sale of church property to pay off debts. The call for more giving by parishioners follows publicity that the Catholic Church sold off prime land in Apia to pay off a bank loan for the construction of a Catholic center at Leauva’a. The three-acre parcel was sold for about $1.7 million, reducing the church’s debt by half.
—FS
American Samoa
The first Jamaican restaurant, Jamaican Stop, has opened for business in Pago Pago, offering a selection of Samoan food with an added taste of Caribbean spices. It is owned and operated by Barry and Sia Green, a California couple who recently moved to the territory.
—FS
Niue
Polynesian Airlines has been given rights to provide a twice weekly service to Niue, perpetually troubled by inconsistent air links. The Apia-based carrier has had an off-and-on relationship with Niue since the 1970s, when the small, remote island was part of the “Polynesian Triangle,” a multi-destination package offered by the airline, which has been plagued by management and financial problems at various times. Airline officials from New Zealand are said to have had a hand in arranging the new connection.
—ND
Cook Islands
A foreign proposal to establish a tourist resort on Aitutaki has been turned down by the Cook Islands Investment Board on the grounds that it is an “inappropriate project.” Explaining the decision, board director Nick Henry says that the bar is being raised for foreign investors in certain areas of development such as tourism. “It was to be 100 percent foreign owned,” he says of the proposed development, “and the real economic benefit was not very large at all to Aitutakians.” Cook Islanders, says Henry, although they had previously been involved in budget accommodation developments, were now able to fund more expensive projects themselves. A new draft code relating to foreign investment conditions is being prepared.
—ND
—Contributors: Norman Douglas, Frank Whitman, Rebecca Stanfel, Fili Sagapolutele, Giff Johnson
