Business Briefs

Alan Seid

Palau

Alan Seid, president of Palau Micronesian Air, says the region's newest airline will operate its first scheduled flight in December. The airline will serve Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Japan, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the Philippines. CEO Jim Bradfield, confirmed that Palau Micronesian Air would be "opening offices and recruiting staff throughout the airline network."

-NC

The Palau Visitors Authority announced a 62 percent drop in visitor arrivals in June of 2003 as compared to June of 2002-the largest decline in years. The huge decline was attributed to the SARS epidemic in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

-NC

Taxi drivers in Palau have appealed to the Palau National Congress for help as they battle local tour bus companies. Taxi drivers say their businesses were "quite prosperous" before tour buses began operating in numbers, but now they are having trouble making ends meet. Drivers would like the Congress to establish rules licensing buses and bus drivers and to guarantee that bus owners are following Foreign Investment Board rules and regulations.

-NC

Storyboard carving has become such a successful business with prisoners in the Koror Jail that they now have a business license and will be paying taxes on their sales like any other business in Palau. The Prisoner's Carver Association was formed when Minister of Justice Michael Rosenthal and Attorney General Ken Barden found that storyboard carving in the jail no longer amounted to incidental sales, but had become a lucrative business for the prisoners. The association has about 44 members.

-NC

Guam

Guam has three new media outlets. The inaugural issue of Guahan magazine went on sale in early July. The monthly lifestyle magazine is owned by publisher Carlene Cooper-Nurse and production and circulation manager David R. Castro. Most recently, Cooper-Nurse was the editor of Directions magazine and Castro was art director. "I want the magazine to celebrate our people and our diversity with an in-depth perspective," says Cooper-Nurse. Guahan's editor-in-chief is Jayne Flores. Flores has been active in Guam broadcast and print media since 1984. Ed Poppe launched KISH FM 102.9 at the end of June. Guam's newest radio station plays Chamorro music 24 hours a day. The station is fully computerized and has a library of more than 2,000 Chamorro songs. Poppe, who has owned Guam's KSTO FM since 1974, got into the Chamorro music format when he began KCNM FM in Saipan five years ago. KTKB FM 101.9 began broadcasting on June 1. The station has a variety format with a concentration on its Filipino music personality shows, says general manager Rolando Manuntag. The station is owned by KM Broadcasting Guam LLC, with the principal investors in the U.S. mainland.

-FW

Continental Airlines on July 3 resumed its daily afternoon flights from Guam to Narita, Japan with onward connections to the U.S. mainland. The flight departs Guam at 11:55 a.m. and continues to Houston. Between Guam and Narita the route is serviced by a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. "The additional capacity out of Japan is good news for Guam's visitor industry," says Mark Erwin, Continental Micronesia's Guam-based president and chief executive officer.

-FW

Vanuatu

Vanuatu's visitor arrivals for the first six months of 2003 showed a decline of 6.3 percent compared with the same period last year. Visitors from Australia, the country's major market, decreased by 7.5 percent. There were significant falls also from New Zealand and in the "other countries" category, but increases from neighbor New Caledonia and the U.S. Cruise ship visitors increased by an impressive 326 percent due to the placing of another ship by P&O on South Pacific itineraries.

-ND

Fiji

Fiji's flagship carrier Air Pacific is showing signs of nervousness at potential competition from Virgin Blue, the discount airline which has been operating successfully in Australia for some time and was recently given approval to commence services to Fiji, New Zealand and Vanuatu. However, at press time Virgin Blue had not announced which of its new routes it would commence first. Virgin Blue has said that it is considering daily flights to Fiji, a prospect that will certainly affect Air Pacific, but may bring greater price benefits to consumers in the currently competitive climate.

-ND

American Samoa

The U.S. Postal Service awarded on July 25th its weekly American Samoa mail flight to Ysplanti, Michigan-based Kalitta Air. However, Pacific Air Cargo, a Los Angeles-based air-cargo carrier that began weekly cargo flights from Honolulu to Pago Pago in early July, will carry the mail. The USPS has been searching for a mail flight to Pago Pago since March this year.

-FS

Cook Islands

The establishment of a new $1.7 million fish processing plant at Nikao on Rarotonga is vital to the development of the Cook Islands fishing industry. This is the view of Brett Porter, owner of Cook Island Fish Exports and spokesman for joint venture partners Sealord, Hawkes Bay Fisheries and the Ngati Kahungunu of New Zealand. The plant is capable of blast freezing 15 tons of tuna a day and producing 10 tons of ice, a capacity expected to double in time. Its chillers can store more than 50 tons of fish.

-ND

CNMI

Chamolinian Cultural Village Inc., a non-profit organization, held the official grand opening for its new cultural park in Garapan on July 19. The Chamolinian Cultural Village features seven huts in which local artisans demonstrate the traditional skills of the indigenous population. Visitors can observe canoe making, coconut oil processing, mwarmwar making, banana painting and palm weaving.

-FW

Marshall Islands

During the July Majuro Chamber of Commerce meeting, business leaders expressed renewed concern over companies that are smuggling goods into Majuro and not being prosecuted for avoiding taxes. Tax evasion is having a "devastating impact on the economy and there is no apparent recognition by the national government of how serious this is," says Jerry Kramer, CEO of Pacific International Inc. Bob Jones, whose Saipan- and Guam-based Triple J is managing a new Payless store in Majuro, said businesses smuggling goods in Majuro were unethical and illegal.

-GJ

Air Marshall Islands, the country's national government-funded airline, has put the government on a cash-only basis. Lack of payment on government travel authorizations has forced the board to make the move at a meeting in July. AMI estimates that the government owes it $850,000.

-GJ