Pacific Notes

Fiji Photo: Bruce Southwick Fiji Loses Narrowly, Then Badly Fiji rugby fullback, Norman Ligairi, in full flight against the New Zealand Maoris in Suva. The Maori won the game early May, narrowly, 29-27. However a week later the story was very different, with Fiji's humiliating loss to the New Zealand All Blacks, 0-91. Manu Samoa also had a tough international match, losing to the Australian Wallabies 7-74 on June 11.

CNMI

'Pretty Darn Good,' Says Governor
Governor Juan N. Babauta in a "State of the Commonwealth" address May 19 pronounced that the economy of the Northern Marianas "is still pretty darn good" and then declared a state of emergency on the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., (CUC) suspending the board's powers for 90 days or until the island's power crisis is resolved. Speaking before high ranking government officials and a large audience, the governor painted a rosy picture of the Commonwealth and his accomplishments during the past three years. He is running for re-election this November.

But the reaction of law makers to the address was mixed. House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial called the governor's remarks an "oxymoron" in that Babauta said the economy is still "pretty darn good" while also declaring a state of emergency on the island's power crisis. But Senate President Joaquin Adriano agreed with most of the governor's comments, especially the governor's push to pass the budget in an election year, something that has not been done since the inception of the Commonwealth in 1978.

Babauta's move to suspend the powers of the seven-member board of directors came after they failed to solve the fuel dispute with Mobil Oil resulting in one of the generators running out of fuel twice in May. Several villages on Saipan were affected, including Capitol Hill where the seat of the central government is located. CUC and Mobil blamed each other and more rolling power outages occurred. Mobil claimed CUC owed them more than $8 million for fuel already delivered. When one of the generators ran out of fuel the second time, consumers throughout Saipan were warned about the impending load shedding and big consumers such as hotels, apartments, garment factories and large department stores were asked to use their own generators.

"I have the responsibility to take action when the Commonwealth is threatened," Babauta said, and announced that Lieutenant Governor Diego T. Benavente will lead the administration in negotiating with Mobil Oil a long-term fuel contract for CUC at reasonable prices. In a state of emergency, the governor has the legal responsibility to utilize any funding to pay for the fuel and maintenance of the power plant.

Speaker Fitial, who is running against Babauta in a four-way race for governor this November, said the emergency declaration shocked other political leaders and warned that the Governor could use the emergency situation for political purposes. Shortly after the Bank of Guam indicated its approval for a $10 million letter of credit for fuel purchase, the House leadership said that public debts under the CNMI constitution must be sanctioned by the Legislature first, a position Babauta disagreed with under a legal opinion issued by his Attorney General, Pamela Brown.

As Pacific Magazine went to press, a fuel contract is being finalized between Lieutenant Governor Benavente and Mobil Oil, which has already loaded fuel from its supplier in Singapore for Saipan.
-Frank S. Rosario

Region

Fund For The North Pacific
The newly established Fund for the North Pacific has delivered on one of its first projects, 6,000 books to three island nations.

Managed by David Roth, who has worked with Pacific Island ministries of education for almost a decade and is now president of Occidental College in California, the Fund seeks to "more effectively coordinate resource development and fundraising efforts for North Pacific nations and communities."

The Fund recently presented 2,000 books to the governments of Marshall Islands, Palau and Federated States of Micronesia. The books were donated by Books for Freedom, and the Fund "hopes they will be of great use by the schools and communities of Micronesia."

The Fund's board of advisers currently consists of three Micronesia-area ambassadors to the UN-outgoing Ambassador Alfred Capelle from Marshall Islands, Ambassador Masao Nakayama from FSM, and Ambassador Stuart Beck from Palau. Beck says "the Fund...is exactly what we have needed for many many years."

Roth also plans to recruit representatives from non government organizations to the board, and to coordinate with other Pacific Island-based coordinating and funding agencies.
-Samantha Magick

Region

World Bank Launches New Regional Strategy
Climate change mitigation is one of the main planks of a new World Bank strategy publicly released in June. Covering the bank's work in nine Pacific Island countries, the 2006-2009 strategy will also work on "tackling the increasing levels of economic hardship (and) youth unemployment."

The World Bank says it has faced the challenge of defining a strategic role in what it calls, an "aid-abundant region." That strategic role seems to be focused mainly on public expenditure management and facilitating private sector led growth.

The Bank's total investment is US$80 million over the four years of the new strategy, in technical assistance projects as well as direct funding.

New work includes a major education project in Tonga in cooperation with New Zealand aid. The NZ$10 million (US$7.06 million) project is "aimed at improving the quality of primary and secondary education so that school graduates have better chances in the regional employment market." It's seen as a pilot project that might become a model used around the Pacific if successful.

Country director for the World Bank's Pacific Island operations, Xian Zhu, says "Pacific Island countries have developed large public sectors that are sometimes hampered in their efforts to deliver services effectively. The bank aims to strengthen government capacity to improve public expenditures in social sectors, infrastructure and natural disaster management. The strategy also seeks to improve the incentives for private sector led growth and job creation."

That last message seemed to resonate with some participants at the recent Forum Economic Ministers Meeting in Tuvalu, who examined the Bank's "Doing Business in 2005" report. Fiji's finance minister, Ratu Jone Kubuabola said the report highlighted some of the things Fiji needs to do to attract investment, after rating the country mediocre in respect to the cost of enforcing contracts and labor flexibility.

The World Bank has also been studying "the opportunities for a managed labor migration program from the Pacific Islands to Australia and New Zealand," something that many island nations have wanted for some years.
-Samantha Magick

Samoa

Consulate Office To Open In Pago Pago
The government of Samoa hopes to have its new consulate office in American Samoa open for business this month, after receiving approval from the U.S. State Department. The office will deal mostly with immigration issues.

Samoa wants the office to process immigration requirements for Samoa citizens visiting the territory, to issue travel permits for U.S. nationals from American Samoa traveling to the independent state, and act as a conduit for Samoa citizens living in the U.S. territory.

Auseugaefa Va'asatia Poloma Komiti, CEO of Samoa's Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, noted early June that Samoa officials were to travel to Pago Pago to scout a location for the proposed office.

In the early 1980s, Samoa opened an office in American Samoa, but it was closed a few years later during a Samoa government changeover.
-Fili Sagapolutele

Federated States of Micronesia Compact Progress Three major developments at the end of May are expected to significantly advance implementation of the Compact of Free Association between the Federated States of Micronesia and the United States. Implementation of the Compact for the FSM has been slow on several fronts. Compact-funded construction work has yet to commence, with two years worth of funding-more than $35 million-piling up. But the FSM's sign-off in the last week of May on an infrastructure priority plan for the four states is expected to help get money flowing. It will still take some months to fully establish the project management unit and begin public bids for construction work, but FSM officials are hopeful that construction -which translates directly into increased employment-could begin before the end of the year. Chuuk State will be the major recipient of the first two years of construction funding, with $21.5 million of the total devoted to infrastructure there. FSM President Joseph Urusemal Photo: Giff Johnson Another major development was the FSM Congress' approval of its strategic development plan, which is supposed to guide funding under the Compact into key sectors, principally education and health. Although FSM Congress officials in passing the document made no secret of the fact that they feel the plan needs review and streamlining, it was a document that U.S. officials had been seeking since mid-2004. The Congress' approval of the Compact Management Office, with experienced diplomat Epel Ilon as its director, was the final action taken before the FSM Congress recessed in late May. Foreign Secretary Sebastian Anefal and Secretary of Finance and Administration, Nick Andon, were approved as members of the Compact Management Office's board, representing the FSM national government. The four states are to name a single representative each to the board, and this group will meet with the U.S. through the Joint Economic Management Committee (JEMCO) that is required to approve all Compact funding. These actions establish the basic systems for implementing funding and other programs of the Compact, and for dealing with the U.S., which earlier in the year was expressing increasing concern about lack of action on the FSM side. -Giff Johnson