Business Briefs

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare Photo: Scott Whitney The Papua New Guinea government has terminated the proposed sale of 51 percent of Telikom (PNG) Ltd to African telecommunications giant Econet Wireless Group. Bowing to criticism in Parliament and public outcry, Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare announced the PNG Cabinet's decision and said the sale process would be looked at again this year. "Given the debate from various sectors of the community and the parliamentary resolution not to proceed with the sale under its current structure, the Cabinet has decided the most logical step is to cancel current attempts to sell this important State asset," Sir Michael said. - ADVERTISEMENT - -AR The owner of the world's fourth largest copper and gold deposit, WMC Resources, has agreed to buy as much as 28 billion cubic feet a year of Papua New Guinea gas, says Exxon Mobil. This is up from an earlier accord. The venture, which includes PNG petroleum company Oil Search, will decide early this year whether to build the $US3 billion natural gas pipeline from PNG to Australia. The plan to transport gas more than 3,000 kilometers to meet rising demand in eastern Australia has stalled for more than five years. -AR Papua New Guinea Coffee Growers Federation has started identifying and mapping the coffee growing regions of PNG into several agro-ecological zones. The coffee produced from the agro-ecological zones would be marketed to specialty coffee markets in the United States and Europe. U.S.-based Coffee Pacific, which distributes and sells PNG-grown organic coffee to markets in the U.S. and Europe, says information gathered through the exercise will help to accurately set up precise agro-ecological location of cooperatives, coffee growers and coffee farms. -AR

The Survivor 10 Palau team disappeared in December as inexplicably as it had arrived in October. The fortified worksite rented from NECO Marine in the Malakal area of Koror-a veritable circus of tents, containers, makeshift buildings, docks, runabouts and people-is again an empty lot. The 300-plus Survivor team-all on expense accounts-frequented local hotels, laundromats, restaurants, gift shops and grocery stores. Favorite Rock Island sites included Ulong Island, German Lighthouse and Jellyfish Lake were intermittently closed and confidentiality was the unspoken rule. Employees of Survivor-operating as Clear Water, Inc.-were mum as to operations. North Beach Cottages on Babeldaob housed ousted Survivor participants until, to sustain the mystery, all could return home together. Clear Water provided jobs for locals and the upcoming series is expected to generate increased tourism. Survivor 10 Palau should air in early 2005.

-NC

Guam

During December, the U.S. Navy awarded the long-anticipated Base Operations Support (BOS) contract and two other large contracts for work in Guam. The BOS contract was awarded to a consortium, DZSP. Dick Pacific Inc. won two contracts. The first, valued at $13.3 million, is for the construction of a consolidated war material storage facility on Andersen Air Force Base. Dick will also upgrade a major water treatment plant for $17.7 million. Problems with water quality have resulted in periodic shortages.

-FW

The sale of Guam Telephone Authority to TeleGuam Holdings LLC was completed on Dec. 30. Meanwhile Guam's Consolidated Commission on Utilities was moving forward with plans to privatize the management of another government utility, the problem-plagued Guam Waterworks Authority. However, the legislation proposed by the commission-the first step in the process-has met resistance from GWA employees and residents concerned about relinquishing control over the vital resource. GWA is currently operating under a court order following a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The suit alleges that GWA was not maintaining safe drinking water or waste water systems. The court order specifies steps and a timetable to be followed to rectify the situation.

-FW

Citizens Bancorp, the parent company of Citizens Security Bank of Guam, had a good year in 2004, paying four dividends to shareholders, according to president and CEO Larry Butterfield, who added that total dividends paid were 33 percent above those paid in 2003. CSB was named Small Business Administration lender of the year on Guam for four consecutive years.

-GJ

Marshall Islands

Pacific International Inc. is soon to add 24 more apartment units to its Lojkar Village area in Majuro, which is already the country's largest apartment complex with 36 existing units. PII owner Jerry Kramer confirmed that a new three-story complex will be built using "waffle-crete," a prefabricated concrete structure. The aim is to have the apartments ready for occupancy in May. "Every apartment that we have is full, and there is more demand," he says, adding that he expects no difficulties in filling the 24 units once they're built.

-GJ

Every man, woman and child from Bikini Atoll-3,470 to be exact-received $29 from Bikini Atoll Divers in December. It's the fourth year that the islanders displaced since 1946 by American nuclear weapons tests have benefited from international scuba divers venturing to this remote necklace of coral islands to dive on the fleet of U.S. and Japanese World War II vessels that lie on the lagoon bottom. The payment of $200,000, which included $100,000 for supplemental food to displaced islanders, represents profits from the dive program that wrapped up its ninth year of operations at the end of 2004, according to Bikini liaison Jack Niedenthal. He says that about $800,000 in profits from the diving program has gone to Bikinians over the past four years. This profit could increase in 2005 with the new Air Nauru service linking Australia with Majuro. Niedenthal says that the more than 40 Australian divers who've already booked reservations for 2005 is four times more Australians than have visited Bikini in its first nine years of dive operations.

-GJ

The Backpacker Hotel in Majuro has added a wing of shared, dormitory-style rooms to its 13 private rooms. The low-priced hotel, which opened three years ago with private room rates ranging from $25-$35 a night, now offers a $15 room for the budget traveler who doesn't mind the possibility of sharing a room with one other customer. The facility has been particularly popular with visitors from the South Pacific who face the prospect of unfavorable exchange rates with the U.S. dollar in Majuro.

-GJ

Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands government has approved building of the country's first five-star hotel in Honiara. The Papua New Guinea-based Constantinou Group will build the Heritage Park Hotel on the site of the former Government House, which has caused some controversy. Director Kostas Constantinou says they will spend almost US$8 million on developing the site, and hopes to open for visitors in 10 months.

-SM

Samoa

The Carpenters Group of Australia ended more than half a century of wholesaling and retailing in Samoa with the sale in December of its controlling shares in Molesi Samoa, the group's trading arm. According to the announcement of the sale, Carpenters Group will now concentrate on its extensive business interests in Fiji. Its shares were taken over by Frankie Cai, a prominent local businessman of Korean origin.

-AT

CNMI Richard Pierce, executive director of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association. Photo: Giff Johnson Instead of paying the Marine Revitalization Corp. (MRC) $2.2 million, the CNMI government will now have to pay $5.46 million, an arbitration panel has ruled. For several years, MRC has been asking the government to pay an agreed settlement of $2.2 million. The executive branch asked the legislature to appropriate the money. This went on for more than two years. An arbitration panel consisting of former Superior Court Presiding Judges Edward Manibusan and Robert A. Hefner, and Guam-based attorney David Mair has now ruled in MRC's favor. MRC leased government property and built boat slips and improved the sites at Outer Cove Marina. When the government failed to do its part by building a breakwater, an agreement was reached to return the entire Outer Cove Marina to the government, provided it paid MRC $2.2 million, which it never did. -FR The Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association (SGMA) has asked CNMI law enforcement agencies to assist the association in ridding the CNMI of stolen apparel being illegally marketed in Saipan retail stores and restaurants. Richard Pierce, SGMA's executive director, says that the $3 to $5 apparel items being sold at various stores and restaurants have been stolen from some of the 22 apparel factories on Saipan. While not naming specific businesses, Pierce says SGMA have approached five retailers selling stolen apparel items. Selling of stolen items also deprives the government of tax revenues and legitimate retailers are being deprived of sales. -FR The Saipan Chamber of Commerce re-elected Alex Sablan as president for another one-year term beginning January. Richard Pierce was re-elected as vice president. Mike Johnson is the new treasurer and Jay Jones is the new secretary. Elected as board of directors are David M. Sablan, Harry Blalock and Jim Aranovsky. The meeting was held at Hyatt Regency Hotel. -FR

Fiji

Fiji's Vomo Island Resort joins the Accor hotel group's Sofitel network this month. The resort has undergone upgrading and refurbishment, and will be known as Sofitel Vomo Island Resort following the re-branding. Accor will also take over management of the Dominion Hotel in Nadi and launch the Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa on Denarau Island in October. Accor Asia Pacific managing director Michael Issenberg says, "We anticipate that Fiji will have another outstanding year of tourism, and we believe that the launch of Sofitel in Fiji will help attract premium tourism as well as conference and incentive groups who are looking for a destination that is perceived as attractive and safe. We will be targeting the Australian, New Zealand, American and Japan markets in particular."

-SM

The Suva High Court has quashed a decision of Fiji's Major Tenders Board to award private commercial radio station, Communications Fiji Limited (CFL), sole rights to Public Service Broadcast in the Hindi language. The court ordered the Major Tenders Board to call for fresh tenders for PSB contracts in both the Fijian and Hindi languages for the years 2004 to 2006. Jitoko's ruling came after State-run Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited (FBCL) sought a judicial review of the Major Tenders Board decision to award the contract to CFL in November 2003.

-SM

The South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPSE) says 2004 was a very good year, with all 16 listed companies recording positive total returns for the year. Investors who bought shares in the top four performing companies were rewarded with total returns in excess of 60 percent return. Flour Mills of Fiji Limited (FMF) shares were the star performer for the year, recording a total return of 92.57 percent. Carlton Brewery (Fiji) Limited shares continued its strong performance from 2003, with a total return of 61.43 percent. Outgoing CMDA head Julie Apted says, "This is the first time in the recent history of the Fiji stock market that shares have performed so strongly. This performance reflects the growing interest and strong demand that investors have for share investments."

-SM

French Polynesia

The 320-passenger cruise ship M/V Paul Gauguin, which has been based in Papeete since 1998, is going to continue operating regular cruises among Tahiti and her islands until January 2007, a year longer than planned. The extension was made possible by a new agreement between the Boston-based new owners and Radisson Seven Seas, which operates the cruises. Tahiti's tourism minister says French Polynesia's cruise ship sector represented some six billion French Pacific francs (US$67.7 million) of the 43 billion French Pacific francs (US$485 million) in overall revenue that the tourism industry produces yearly.

-TahitiPresse

Contributors: Nancy Chism, Frank Rosario, Frank Whitman, Giff Johnson, Alex Rheeney, Samantha Magick and Afamasaga Toleafoa.