New Caledonia plans
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Paris treads warily over New Caledonia plans
From a Noumea correspondent
As the French Sixth Plan draws to an end, marked by dramatic failure as far as the objectives for New Caledonian nickel are concerned, Noumea authorities are now warily setting up goals for the Seventh Plan, through 1976-80.
Whereas previously, it had been predicted that New Caledonia would be exporting up to 200,000 tons of nickel metal by 1976, latest cautious estimates call for the production of just 120,000 tons by 1980. This would be made up of about 80,000 tons from the SEN, 18,000 tons as the initial level of output at the factory to be built in the north around Poum- Koumac and some 20,000 tons from a factory planned to treat lateritic nickel ore in the south of the island around Goro-Port Boise.
To achieve this target, the plan prescribes that there must be assistance with the building up of necessary infrastructure, as well as an effort to limit price rises and wage increases while improving productivity and allowing suitable tax concessions to the French companies involved. All of this is much more cautious than the optimistic 1969 assertions that by 1976 New Galedonia’s nickel would be earning annually for France enough foreign currency to equal one third of the nation’s (low) foreign reserves at that time.
As far as future nickel ore exports are concerned, the object would be to meet Japan’s needs of around 3.5 million tons a year. At the same time, the French would continue prospecting for other minerals,
especially searching the seabed for oil.
After mining, the second main in dustry treated by the French Plan for New Caledonia is tourism. Here it is hoped that the number of overseas visitors to the island will reach 85,000 by 1980, compared with 12,000 in 1973 and an expected 24,000 this year. The 1980 goal de pends on a high inflow of Japanese tourists, together with an increase in hotel capacity of international stan dard from the current 1,000 to an eventual 1,500 rooms, The poorest Caledonian sector, that of agriculture and livestock, underlines the need for the territory to reduce the expenditure of valuable foreign currency for imported food stuffs. It is hoped that local produc tion should thus satisfy 70 per cent of local demand for beef, 100 per cent of pork and poultry needs, 75 per cent of fresh vegetables and 100 per cent of tropical foodstuffs. Judg ing by agricultural performance to date, great strides would need to be made in the organisation of local production and sales distribution to achieve these goals, as New Cale donia currently relies on the outside world to supply about SA3O million worth of foodstuffs annually, No-one can blame the Caledonians, after seeing the outcome of the Sixth Plan, for being highly sceptical about the Seventh. Yet, judging by the rapid expansion of port, airport and general construction works around Noumea, Paris planners are obviously prepared to invest heavily in projects for the island.