Barclays in

Trade

Winds

Blue Chip out,

Barclays in

on Tuvalu

[ Tuvalu plans to withdraw the $550 380 which Prime Minister ‘ Toalipi Lauti invested with I Californian real estate dealer Mr Sidney Gross and his Blue I Chip Realty Investments. [ (PIM, May, 1979, p 42). The [ money is needed to buy the I Tuvaluans a share in a bank [ which Barclays Bank Inter- I national will establish in Tuvalu as a joint venture with the Tuvalu Government.

Parliament was told at its December session that the government had accepted pro posals from Barclays to establish the bank with the government owning 75% and Barclays 25% of the capital share issue. Prime Minister Lauti said the money invested with Blue Chip Realty was now needed for the banking ven ture. The long-term aim was for Tuvalu to acquire Barclays’ share so that, eventually, the bank would be wholly owned : by the government and people of Tuvalu.

While at Funafuti last Sep tember, Mr Gross told the Prime Minister that the orig inal investment had earned $3l 560.50 so that Tuvalu’s stake in Blue Chip was almost $582 000 by last September.

While in Funafuti Mr Gross asked for a charter to open a bank in Tuvalu. No further in formation was offered to Par liament by the Prime Minister.

The ‘Speech from the Throne’ given by the Speaker, Elia Tavita, in the absence through illness of the Governor-General, Sir Fiatau Penitala, was strongly criticised by the four-member Oppo sition which claimed that the government used the speech for self-praise. Mr Faati Naisali (Nukulaelae) challen

ged the government to have Parliament dissolved and have fresh elections because he was losing confidence in the government’s policies.

Opposition members also attacked the government’s monetary policies, alleging that so far as money was concerned.

Tuvalu’s relations with the United Kingdom had gone sour and complicated when, previously, they were simple and easy.

From Copper

Into Gold?

If the price of gold keeps rising, perhaps Bougainville Copper will change its name to ‘Bougainville Gold’, according to a January comment by an Australian financial writer.

The price of gold had just passed SUS6OO an ounce on world markets.

The 740 000 ounces of gold produced annually on Bougainville had a current market value of just over SA4OO million. This compared with the market value of $350 million of its annual pro duction of 175 000 tonnes of copper.

If the price of gold remains anywhere near present levels, Bougainville’s profits would benefit very considerably as would the Papua New Guinea Government, which is entitled to 70% of ‘excess’ profits made by the company.

New Paper

On Guam

The Guam Tribune, the island’s second daily newspaper, struggled into existence on December 1, 1979. The first 120-page, tabloid-size issue featured a congratulatory letter from the White House addres sed to publisher Mark Pan gilinan and signed by President

Jimmy Carter.

The Tribune, christened by 50 people who shared a US $lOOO prize in a pre publication contest, is the cap stone in Mark Pangilinan’s commercial empire on Guam.

The astute, 51-year-old Filipino entrepreneur laid his business cornerstone when he arrived on the war-ravished island.

In 1946 the 18-year-old

sailor from the Philippines was persuaded to establish a tailor ing shop to cater to the thou sands of Filipino construction workers who were too small in stature for available U.S. ready-to-wear garments. His string of prosperous

companies, which employ 1000

persons, ranges from a propane gas distributor and Honda automobile dealership to a

five-storey department store

with supermarket and esca lators. His only serious business blunder was a million dollar amusement park which failed to catch the interest of

honeymooning Japanese tour

ists.

Marcus Pangilinan’s organ isational and management skills have been lent to the Guam Power Authority and the University of Guam Board of Regents. He served success fully as chairman of both bodies, an accomplishment of no little significance for a high

school graduate. Pangilinan

has also been a central, unify

ing figure in the linguistically

and politically divided Filipino

community of Guam, which treats him as an elder states man.

The Guam Tribune meets the

Pacific Daily News (PDN)

head-on in the morning mar ket. The ‘Trib’ bills itself as

“your community newspaper.”

a jab at the national and inter national scope of its competi tor, the western link in the hundred-U.S.-cities Gannett newspaper and television chain, which proclaims that it is published “Where America’s

day begins.”

The Tribune's maiden issue, which was delivered free to every household on Guam, fol lowed on the heels of three me

diocre practice issues. Major

technical problems cropped up

in establishing a dependable

connection with the Washing ton Post/Los Angeles Times Wire Service. Most of the syn dicated comic strips got lost in the mail and the new equip

ment for processing photo

graphs onto rubberised mats arrived in defective condition.

On the positive side, the pub lisher corralled a four-months’

supply of newsprint in a tight

supply market.

The Compugraphic typeset ter, which produces type from strips of film, and the new 8-unit Goss Community web offset press, which prints a

single-colour, 64-page edition

at 18,500 copies per hour, have worked perfectly, except dur ing a four-hour island power cut which occurred the day be fore the printing plant’s emerg ency power generator was hooked up.

George M. Dobry came in from California as associate publisher and Glenda Moore, an experienced figure in Guam newspaper work, is managing editor. Moore writes the edi torials.

In the paper’s first week the staff squarely faced the dif ficult decision whether to print a news story that came out of the local courts. The Tribune broke the news that Mrs Jan Chargualaf Tanaka, wife of

Thomas Tanaka, speaker of th« Guam Legislature, had re: quested separate maintenanc: for herself and their six chil! dren and a monthly stipend a U 553,500 on grounds that he husband had committei adultery. Mrs Mary Elaine Sa Nicolas Cadigan, the directa of the Guam Department c Education, was named in thi suit. The ‘Trib’ reported thi with a headline on page 4. Thi PDN buried the same report ii police news the followini

day.

Subsequently, Mrs Cadigai

submitted letters of resignatioi to Gov. Paul Calvo and to thi elected Board of Education She wrote that she wished t«; pursue ‘further studies in edu. cation.’

Advertising money is the lifl blood of Guam’s communi cations media. With two com mercial colour televisioc stations (including a multi channel island-wide cable T v company) and four commen cial radio stations seekim

shares of the advertising expenditures of a rather anaemic, if not artificial, civ ilian economy, can the in flation afflicted Guam public i afford to support another 25c

daily?

I Whether it can or not, it appears that the M. V. Pan gilinan family of enterprises, always heavy advertisers in the pages of the PDN, are cau tiously beginning to throw a share of their budgets in favour of their sibling, the Guam Trib une. The reading public, still hungry for the variety of news it was promised, has found the hard news in the two papers

largely repetitious.

When establishment of the Tribune was still a rumour, Joseph C. Murphy, editor of the rival PDN for over a dec ade. estimated that an invest ment of four million dollars would be required to start a new daily in Guam. Publisher Pangilinan recently stated that he is committed to keeping the fledgling newspaper alive for three years. - Larry Lawcock

Nauru Flies

To Nz

A weekly air service between Nauru and Auckland began on December 1. And Nauru’s consul-general, Mr Les Davis, expects trade between the two countries to ‘take-off with the arrival of a fast, direct and re liable air service between the two countries.

Air Nauru is offering a

special commodity freight rate

of 38C a kilogram for perish able goods as an incentive for Auckland exporters.

The one-way economy fares to Nauru ($271), Port Vila ($170) and Honiara ($230) are well below those available on other airlines.

From December 8 Air Nauru’s flight schedule was for a 10.30 pm arrival at Auckland on Saturdays and a 12.15 pm

departure the next day.

The inaugural flight on

December 1 was celebrated that night at Auckland’s swish Hotel Inter-Continental when President Hammer Deßoburt hosted a buffet dinner. The

following day New Zealand’s

Transport Minister Colin Maclachlan joined the Presi dent on the return flight.

Air Nauru won landing rights to Auckland after a seven-year battle with the New Zealand Government. Presi

dent Deßoburt explained why

the republic wanted to fly here when he opened the Consu late-General in Auckland a year ago. He said then that it would enhance closer relations between the two countries and help Air Nauru’s ‘north-south

operation’ the linking of

New Zealand and Australia with Central Pacific islands like Guam and Kiribati.

He agreed that Nauru was turning to New Zealand rather than its traditional mentor Australia for certain kinds of assistance.

Almost all the expatriates working on Nauru come from New Zealand. Others are being recruited. Six couples will go there in January to take up teaching posts and seven com puter operators are wanted.

James fully

Nc Nickel,

Nz Smelter?

A New Zealand businessman, Ernest Smith, wants to process New Caledonian nickel ore at a new smelter he plans to build in the South Island. ‘We have the energy, New Caledonia has the ore,’ he says. ‘We’re islands in the same area I think we should be helping each other.’

New Zealand’s renewable energy resources would be a major attraction for such a plant and the New Cale donian ore is of high quality.

French trade commissioner in New Zealand, Christian Beaucoup says his office has

approached five large groups

on Mr Smith’s behalf.

Should the right partner turn up, finding the $6O million re

quired for the project might not

be much of a problem. The plant would be a small one by world standards.

New Zealand’s Minister of Energy, Mr Birch, said that Mr Smith’s company, NZ Nickel

• Smelters Ltd, could negotiate a I bulk electricity tariff con cession with the government.

Nauru:

Seaborn

Power?

I Nauru is moving heavily into

an experiment designed to gen

erate electricity by using tem

perature differences in the sea.

If the experiment is successful the Nauru Government will order four 2500 kw plants at an estimated cost of $6O-80 million. The electricity will be used to desalinate water which will be used for the island’s agriculture. Contractor for the project is the Tokyo Electric Power Service Company Ltd.

Cl Produce

For Usa

The door permitting Cook Islands produce to enter the United States mainland opened a little in December when the US Department of Agriculture approved the entry of Cl fresh pineapple, taro and tarua.

The items are the first from a list of Cl produce to be given the go-ahead. The list was sent to the USDA by Cooks Premier Dr Tom Davis.

Describing the move as ‘a useful start’, a Cl Ministry of

Agriculture spokesman said

there were still many Cl pro ducts for which entry rights were being sought. One of these is pawpaw. The spokes man said he believed the local variety would be welcomed by American consumers.

Bhanabhais

Sell Big

In one of the biggest foreign property investments in Fiji for some time, a trust company, Prescom, has paid a total of SF2 025 000 for two buildings in central Suva, the Hotel Suva and a property on the corner of Cumming St and Renwick Rd.

Prescom Ltd is a Fiji-registered company with head office in the Channel Islands and three Dutchmen as directors. Both properties were sold by the Bhanabhai family, most of whom live in Hong Kong or India.