Letters

Matelita Ragogo's article in your August issue about Fiji's nascent film and television production industry is a timely contribution to informing people in the region and more widely about the development of this exciting industry in Fiji. Your readers may not be aware, however, that under the tax concessions passed by the Fiji Parliament it is not only film and television production which Fiji is seeking to attract.

The legislation provides the same concessions for the audio recording industry and similar, generous ones for the computer software industry and for businesses operating interactive web sites, e-commerce and telecommunications based operations (e.g. call centers and back office processing).

Your article includes various comments by the Chairman of the Fiji Audio Visual Commission (FAVC), Joe Mar, on the "slow pace" of a key aspect of the recently introduced tax incentives, the development of the Yaqara Studio City.

As holders of the lease to develop the site, which covers over 5,500 acres of land and, water and approximately six square miles of developable land, Yaqara Group Limited (formerly Paradise Entertainment Limited) has worked diligently, and in partnership with government and landowners, since 1998 to complete the extensive regulatory requirements-notwithstanding a Memorandum of Understanding signed in January 2001 stating that these requirements would be expedited with "time being of the essence."

With the final of several leases making up the site approved in July 2004, the Yaqara Group Limited has now commissioned a team of domestic and international consultants to work with government's Town and Country Planning Department on concluding the Master Plan for the site. It is intended that further site work commence at the Yaqara Studio City in the fourth quarter of 2004 with the first of the major projects getting underway in 2005.

It should not be overlooked that work on the site actually commenced early 2004 with the establishment of the multi-million dollar Telecom Fiji satellite station. This significant development not only represents an anchor tenant for the complex but also provides a critical telecommunications facility essential to the development of the audiovisual industry in Fiji.

It took nine years of work from the first announcement of Air Pacific's hotel project at Denarau Island before construction commenced and many years of work for the Natadola project to reach its current stage where work will shortly commence. And as the Minister for Commerce, Business Development and Investment said, "these projects are just a fraction of the complexity of the establishment of the Yaqara Studio City."

Australia and New Zealand had to wait something like 70 years for their first major film and television studios. It is safe to say the Fiji Audio Visual Commission's ebullience will be rewarded much more quickly than that.

Lyndon Driscoll
Managing Director
Yaqara Group Limited

FAS Citizens Getting Justice in U.S.?

I have just read on your web site (www.pacificmagazine.net) the article on Mote of the Marshall Islands who has been wrongly imprisoned in the U.S. for alleged immigration violations. Mote's story is one extreme example of how the citizens of the Freely Associated States (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau) residing in the U.S. are treated by U.S. immigration and law enforcement authorities when they run foul of the law.

Sure a citizen of one of the FAS who breaks the law deserves to be punished, but he still has his civil rights and is entitled to a quick and fair trial as any citizen of the U.S. He also has certain rights and privileges, beyond those accorded an ordinary alien, which are bestowed through the letter and spirit of the Compact. I have heard of FSM citizens deported by immigration authorities for minor infractions like DUI.

Are FAS citizens who run afoul of U.S. law accorded due process? Are their rights and privileges given through the Compact being recognized? Are they victimized like other aliens in the name of homeland security, even when their fellow citizens are fighting for the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan? Are the punishments they received just and fair for the crimes committed?

Before closing, I want to thank you for publishing Pacific Magazine and for an excellent job you and your staff have been doing in covering issues facing the small Pacific Islands.

Masao Nakayama
FSM Mission, New York