Islands Want Development Bank

Provided somebody comes up with the cash, the South Pacific Islands look like getting their own develop ment bank. The South Pacific Con ference meeting at Guam in Septem ber decided to form a committee to study methods for raising the wind after hearing a United Nations De velopment Programme (UNDP) re port of a 12-month survey which said that a South Pacific Regional Development Bank could be a viable institution. This on the basis of capital worth only SUS3O million introduced over a five-year period.

By world standards this is a small amount.

At the outset the delegates at Guam were divided over the poten tial value of such a bank. The doubters were Guam, the two Samoas and the Solomons. Western Samoa advocated association by all Island countries with the Asian De velopment Bank to which several of them belong already. Mr Bill Hussey of UNDP and his colleague Mr C.

Langendorf of UNDAT favoured the idea of a bank but it was Mr Mahe Tupouniua, director of the South Pacific Bureau of Economic Co operation, the Forum’s own institu tion, who swung the vote in favour of a bank.

The UNDP report had asked and answered four questions in the affirmative—was there a need for a bank; could administrative costs be kept to a minimum; could capital be found to finance it and would member countries be able to service their borrowings?

Mr Tupouniua held there was a strong case for a bank. There were already some lending institutions in the Pacific but they were national institutions and did not cater for regional needs. The Asian Develop ment Bank was not really in a position to understand fully the unique needs of the South Pacific Islands. The SPC would do well to establish its own development bank.

Guam changed its mind and sup ported the idea, and the resolution setting up a committee, proposed by Dr Joseph Williams of the Cook Islands, was supported by 11 mem bers.

On the committee are Guam, Micronesia, Cooks, Western and American Samoa, Nauru, Fiji, the Solomons and Papua New Guinea.

No French representation!

The UNDP is being asked to con firm the availability of capital from donor countries to get the project off the ground.