Business Briefs
Business Briefs
August 2005
American Samoa A company that manufactures cans for tuna canneries in American
Samoa has started a cutback in its work force citing slow activity at the production
plant at Satala village. An Impress Samoa official confirmed that 12 workers were
laid off in June, the same time the U.S. minimum wage committee was concluding
its five days of wage hearings in Pago Pago. The company cannot continue to maintain
its workforce of about 100 people. A new fish processing facility,
Pago Pago Commercial Fishing Inc., targeting local and off-island markets, plans
to be in operation in a few months. The company aims to buy the bycatch of purse
seiners and longliners that are discarded by the canneries. It is now looking
at securing markets in Hawaii for fresh fish and targeting Asian communities on
the west coast for frozen fish. Fiji Fiji’s
Rosie Holiday Group has announced the development of the F$40 million (US$23.6
million) Likuliku Lagoon Resort with 36 deluxe beachfront bures and 10 over-water
bungalows. The first phase of this two-phase development in the Mamanuca island
group will be completed in November 2006. The Fiji Islands
Trade and Investment Bureau (FTIB) last year registered over 442 new foreign investments
with a total value of F$1.12 billion (US$650 million) according to Commerce Minister
Tomasi Vuetilovoni. The Minister says the projects will create almost 15,000 new
jobs if implemented. CNMI Governor Juan N. Babauta
signed on June 3 a two-year fuel supply contract for the Commonwealth Utilities
Corp. (CUC) with Mobil Oil Micronesia. The new contract is worth $7.5 million.
Babauta declared a state of emergency on May 19 and took over control of CUC after
numerous power outages due to the CUC board’s inability to solve the fuel
supply contract. The new contract will be paid from CUC funds already in the Bank
of Guam. Following the Governor’s emergency declaration, the Bank of Guam
offered the government a $10 million line of credit. However, the offer didn’t
go through because of legal questions over whether that constitutes a violation
of the CNMI constitution, which prohibits public debt for government operations
without legislative approval. The Commonwealth Ports Authority
(CPA) plans to issue new seaport revenue bonds for the paving of the container
yard at the Port of Saipan, according to Carlos H. Salas, CPA executive director.
CPA received the approval from the Commonwealth Development Authority (CDA) to
float $7.18 million for the project. Salas said the concrete paving is estimated
to cost $6 million with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved bonding
basins and filtering/drainage system to address the water runoffs during and after
heavy rains. Saipan Stevedore Company Inc. has committed to $2 million to the
repayment of the bonds. Guam GTA, Guam's recently-privatized
telephone company, launched a $90 million, 10-year project to bury its telephone
cable enclosures. While the cables themselves have been buried for years, the
25,000 above-ground, roadside pedestals have been vulnerable to damage from weather,
vandalism and traffic accidents. The project will begin along Guam’s main
thoroughfares to comply with federal legislation requiring unobstructed access
to pedestrian sidewalks for the physically disabled. Low-lying coastal areas will
also be given high priority.
Marshall Islands Asia Pacific Airlines announced it was to halt carrying mail
to three central Pacific islands in mid-July, a development that could seriously
disrupt the flow of mail and possibly impact longline tuna exports from these
islands. A combination of rising fuel prices, high fuel taxes in the Marshall
Islands, lower-than-promised mail volumes, and difficult-to-work-with U.S. government
agencies forced the decision, says Mike Quinn, the president of Asia Pacific Airlines
(APA). APA has carried U.S. mail to and from the Marshall Islands, Federated States
of Micronesia and Guam under sub-contract to Continental Airlines since October
2004. Quinn said that APA planes will still fly to Majuro and Pohnpei to pick
up fresh tuna for export to Japan, “but these flights will not have any mail
unless there is a new mail deal.” Business people in Majuro reacted with
concern over news that APA is canceling its mail sub-contract. “We all remember
the ‘bad old days’ before the (APA) freighter, when mail was routinely
left behind in Honolulu for lack of space on the crowded Continental Island Hopper
that had to accommodate multiple destinations beyond Majuro,” said Phil Marshall,
chief executive officer of Robert Reimers Enterprises, one of the largest retail
stores in the Marshall Islands. Palau Western
Union Financial Services has launched the Western Union Money Transfer service
in Palau. The introduction of the service was made possible through Western Union’s
new strategic relationship with CTSI Logistics, a Tan Holdings Company. Michael
Tauber, regional vice president, Western Union Asia Pacific said: “This partnership
with CTSI Logistics expands the reach of Western Union into the South Pacific,
which remains a strong growth region.” Palau President
Tommy Remengesau says the opening of the Palau Royal Resort “marks the beginning
of Palau’s economic future,” and the beginning of the journey toward
“high-end tourism,” reported the Palau Horizon. Taiwan’s Vice President
Annette Lu traveled to Palau to attend the opening on June 28 of the hotel, which
was financed by Taiwanese investors. The new 160-room Palau Royal Resort on the
edge of the capital Koror will service some of the roughly 70,000 visitors to
Palau every year, around half of whom come from Taiwan. During her trip, Lu met
with Remengesau and delivered a speech to the senate. Kiribati Two
separate telecommunication bodies have been established. Kiribati Minister for
Communication Natan Teewe said on July 1 that the formation of the two bodies
followed an amendment to the Telecommunication Act 2004 passed in parliament.
Telecommunication Kiribati Limited (TKL), which is the official authority looking
after telecommunication affairs in the country, and which had recently run a television
service, has now been disbanded, to form a new Telecommunication Authority Kiribati
(TAK) and a new Kiribati TV Service, which will concentrate on TV alone. |
