Up Front

with the editor

Green shoots from a seed planted last October by Aus tralian businessman Richard Gall are about to push themselves far enough above ground level to be seen. The seed is that of the South Pacific Business Co-operation Committee, which should help the South Pacific Islands get a greater share of Australian and New Zealand markets, and which should help Australia and New Zealand understand better the problems of the Islands.

RICHARD GALL is the manag ing director of an Adelaide electrical manufacturing firm which has minor interests in Suva. He is a past president of the Electrical Manufacturers’ Association of Aus tralia.

His idea got its start in Sydney last year following a casual conver sation with a couple of us on PIM.

He had looked us up to chat about matters of common interest in the Islands, and over a drink the talk ranged far and wide. It got round to Islands trade difficulties with Australia. One of the big problems, we all agreed, was that the Islands grow the same tropical products that Australia produces.

The "have nets"

Gall felt that as the Islanders were the “have nots”, it was up to the “haves” to help them build up their economies, and he thought one of the needs was for a forum where the Islands could put their points of view.

As an example of what could be done with organised co-operation, he talked of some of his experiences with the Australia-Japan Business Co-operation Committee, of which he is a member. This committee was started in 1963 and annual meetings are held alternatively in Japan and Australia. (The sixth meeting was held in May in Can berra.) It was formed to allow business men of both countries to bring to the attention of the two govern ments those matters which needed official help for solution. Matters which could be adjusted between

the businessmen themselves could be discussed and settled round the table.

The meetings have been remark ably successful, and the scheme has since been copied in some other countries. They have turned out to be an exchange mart of ideas and principles; an opportunity for a closer examination of the other bloke’s problems. Not surprisingly they have also led to such develop ments as student and technician ex change schemes, cultural exchanges, and joint ventures of all kinds.

The value of such a committee depends on the calibre and the standing of its members, and thus the support they get from their coun tries. Members of the Australia- Japan Committee include, for in stance, leading bankers, agricultur ists and industrialists. There are government members on the com mittee too, but because the com mittee is not a government body, discussions are never on a formal government level, and thus solu tions come more easily.

Pacific plan

To get back to Richard Gall. At my invitation he outlined the work of the Australia-Japan committee in a special article for PIM and in it he put forward the first tentative proposal for a South Pacific organisa tion of the same kind, embracing all interested territories. We published it last October.

Having then talked about it in business circles to get something going he produced a provisional covenant, which lists as the Pacific committee’s objectives “the expansion

of trade on a multi-lateral basis, the development of new industries, the rationalisation of industry, the ex change of industrial technologies, the promotion of tourism and the pro motion of educational, cultural and scientific exchange.”

The covenant suggests that each member country should have a regional committee from whom the committee representatives should be appointed. The preamble of this pro visional covenant says, “We, the rep resentatives of the various industrial and commercial organisations, asso ciations and institutions of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Western Samoa, etc., etc., realising the need for co operation between private and gov ernment interests in the South Pacific for the advancement of the peoples’ livelihood therein, have organised a South Pacific Co-operation Commit tee to facilitate and strengthen their economic ties to their individual and mutual advantage.

In my own travels around the Pacific in recent months I have talked at every opportunity about Mr. Gall’s idea and found that it has been received with warm interest.

Prime Minister Mata’afa, of West ern Samoa, and Ratu Mara, Fiji’s Chief Minister, have offered, en thusiastically, to nominate members to the committee from their territor ies.

Fiji, for one, has been doing this kind of pioneer liaison work on its own through its own representative in Sydney, and even in a short time the colony has made real headway in getting its point of view across in Australia.

Prime Minister John Gorton, of Australia, has now shown interest and there should soon emerge the shape of an organisation which will enable Richard Gall’s carefully nur tured plant to grow towards the sun.

Stuart Inder