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Ratu
Sir Kamisese Mara
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Pension for Ratu Mara
The family of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara (pictured), Fiji's former president
and its first prime minister, is pressing the government to pay him a
president's pension in addition to former prime minister's pension he
already receives. Mara, who was deposed after a 2000 coup and later suffered
a stroke, is due for treatment overseas and would benefit from both pensions,
a local newspaper, the Fiji Daily Post, quoted family sources as saying.
Adi Koila Mara Nailatikau, one of Mara's daughters, told the newspaper
that since other parliamentarians and civil servants got more than one
pension, she didn't see why her father did not. The newspaper said a cabinet
official had written saying Mara had been paid almost US$80,000 in 2001
over an above the president's pension entitlement. Nailatikau commented:
³What is eighty thousand US dollars when he has served in both posts?²
Nauru out of OECD blacklist
Nauru has been removed from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development's tax haven blacklist after buckling under pressure, including
threats and reprisals, to close its offshore bank business. Nauru was
accused of allowing itself to be used for the laundering of thousands
of millions of dollars of criminal money.
Canadian firm to build nickel plant
The Canadian mining company, Inco, has chosen a new company to build New
Caledonia's Goro nickel plant, which is projected to cost about US$1.8
billion. Goro head in Noumea, Pierre Alla, says the contract to build
the plant has been given to an Anglo-Canadian joint venture called CEG,
formed for the purpose. CEG is made up of Foster Wheeler and SNC Lavalin.
The announcement comes after the region's biggest planned project was
put on hold over fears of its viability because of cost overruns of about
45 percent or US$600 million. Alla says the company has learned the risks
of moving too fast on the project which was initially set to start production
in 2005.
Diversify economy, Cooks told
Cook Islands tourism may have reached saturation and it's time the country
began diversifying its economy, according to a report received by its
cabinet. Tourism, running at a peak of around 70,000 visitors a year,
has a slowing growth rate while the trade and retail sector is expanding,
the report says.
Guam's recovery
Guam will take from 18 months to two years to recover economically from
a succession of troubles including two bad hurricanes and the crash of
tourism caused by the Iraq War and SARS disease outbreak, according to
a Bank of Hawaii survey. The bank says the United States colony's economy
has shrunk by about one-third in the last decade, with total annual income
dropping from about US$3000 million to US$2000 million. There are about
14,000 jobs than there were in 1992; spending by Japanese visitors, tourism's
mainstay, is down by half to about US$450; government revenue has declined
by 40%; and last year's SARS outbreak cost 300,000 lost visitors who would
have spent about US$150 million. The bank says to attract investment Guam
needs to improve its water, sewage and power services.
Solomon Telikom's licence renewed
Solomon Islands Telikom Company Ltd has had its exclusive licence renewed
for 15 years by the government. The company is 51% owned by the Solomon
Islands National Provident Fund; 41.9% by Cable and Wireless, a British
company; and 7.1% by the government-owned Investment Corporation of the
Solomon Islands.
Quest to grow workforce
Quest, a back-office computer business opened in Fiji a year ago as a
subsidiary of the ANZ Banking group to serve its Asia/Pacific branches,
expects its local workforce to grow from about 60 to 300 in the next 12
to 18 months and ultimately to 1000, according to its managing director,
Lorraine Rodrigues, She says Fiji is an ideal location for a service industry
that could employ as many as 12,000 people.
A regional forensic centre?
A regional forensic centre may be opened to serve Pacific Islands police
forces, according to Fiji's attorney-general, Qoriniasi Bale. He told
a conference of local prosecutors that the proposal needed assessment
for resource needs.
EU funds Noumea aquarium
European Union funds are assisting the construction in Noumea, New Caledonia,
of a US$10 million aquarium due to be completed by the end of 2004. The
aquarium will replace a much smaller one and will have a dual role as
a marine research centre.
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