Women Targetted In ADB'S Pacific Strategy

Peter King has a pet project in mind for the Pacific Islands. He likes to organise a ship that would do the rounds of them to pick up wrecks of discarded motor vehicles that litter their landscapes.

It may or may not happen. But if it doesn't, then other projects King intends to mount as director for the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Pacific Operations Division will.

In February, the ADB, which is headquartered at Manila in the Philippines, will open a new Pacific sub-regional office in Suva, Fiji.

An office the ADB runs in the Vanuatu capital, Port Vila, will operate only for work in Vanuatu. The Suva office is in preparation for what the ADB says is a new Pacific strategy in response to the region's "disappointing growth" and worsening poverty, particularly in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.

"The crux of the problem is that the regional population has expanded at three percent annually for three decades while per capita income has grown at less than one percent a year," says Jeremy Hovland, director general of ADB's Pacific department. "This means that living standards have declined for all except the urban elite."

ADB's strategy is to attack this decline, promote the private sector to reduce a heavy reliance on government, reverse the worsening environmental degradation, and strengthen the role of women‹politically, economically and socially.

Due to be approved early next year, the strategy will cover the ADB's 13 Pacific Islands members. The ADB hopes to persuade governments to gradually turn over many of their responsibilities to private enterprise businesses. "We are moving away from the 'nanny government' that provides everything and governments are accepting the role of encouraging the private sector to play a bigger part in economic growth," King says.

The aim is to help governments leave loss making businesses and provide incentives and remove red tape for entrepreneurs replacing them. This includes privatising or corporatising state-owned enterprises and promoting competition while ensuring that governments have appropriate regulations in place. An example is help for Fiji in moving towards an independent water authority that will adopt corporate practices, including cost recovery measures.

King says there will be safeguards for the public interest. The authority's performance will be measured against benchmarks and the threat of being replaced by a competitor should help keep it honest.

An example of innovative incentive for entrepreneurs being considered by ADB is "subsidy bidding". Business will be invited to offer the lowest bid for a socially desirable but commercially doubtful venture such as a shipping service for a thinly-populated island.

ADB will also help address the critical issue of customary land. Tribes or customary owners communally own a great majority of land in the Pacific, which means that land cannot be used effectively as collaterals. "This is a major constraint to private sector development as well as to foreign investment," King says.

ADB will help improve the current land leasing system. It hopes to develop methods to enable producers to use crops or such moveable assets as vehicles and household appliances when assessing loan applications.

King says that islands countries need a regional quasi-trading bloc to reap the benefits of economies of scale.

The new strategy is intended to improve connectivity for bringing islands closer together. For aviation, the ADB will lend up to US$3 million to establish a Pacific aviation safety office in Vanuatu. This will provide safety and security checks for all airline operations, including passenger, freight services and catering.

"Instead of each country doing this and shouldering high costs, there will be a regional body to do this on a fee-for-service basis," King says. Regional trade offers scope for further rationalisation. The upgrading of an existing abattoir in Vanuatu to provide a regional service - to which countries would send live animals would eliminate the need for marginal profitable or unprofitable abattoirs elsewhere.

Despite limited and expensive Internet access, the most exciting potential for connectivity lies in information communications technology, including electronic government (e-government), King says.

"Tourists in the outer islands in Fiji, for instance, who want to extend visas have to fly to an immigration office in Suva. Under e-government, they could get their visas online, saving time and cost."

The same could apply for renewing licenses or paying taxes.