Tuvalu
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
THE tiny nation that once made up the Ellice half of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands has the dubious honour of being the most densely populated of the Pacific island na tions and observers say that it is quickly moving towards its sustainable popula tion ceiling of 10,000 people. Tuvalu’s nine coral atolls total just 26 square km of land area, which means there are approxi mately 308 people to the square km.
Like its neighbour, Kiribati, which was the Gilberts half of the British colony be fore independence, Tuvalu, a “Micros tate”, has few natural resources and little opportunity to develop export industries.
With a GNP of less than s6m, it appeared Tuvalu was destined to be forever depend ent on foreign aid.
But in August, Tuvalu’s ability to meet its recurrent budget needs was assured when it made world history by establish ing the Tuvalu Trust Fund. The country will no longer be forced to live off the sales of its stamps it will live on the interest of its investments. Westpac Investment Management will manage the trust fund that is made up of $A27m in grants from Australia, New Zealand and Britain. The money will be invested in a variety of low risk assets including fixed interest funds,
equity and property and will be designed to generate an income and to grow.
Tuvalu’s Prime Minister, Dr Tomasi Puapua, expects to net about $ A2m a year in interest from the fund.
PACIFIC CURRENCY RATES AS AT OCT 20, AGAINST $US Australia* 1 * New Fiji New
Png
Solomon Vanuatu Western Zealand 12 * Cal./Tahiti Islands Samoa $A $NZ $F
Cfp
Kina $S Vatu Tala Dec 1985 1.47 2.01 1.12 136.47 1.010 1.61 100.25 2.31 Mar 1986 1.40 1.88 1.09 129.18 0.965 1.63 107.25 2.26 June 1986 1.48 1.85 1.12 126.61 0.963 1.72 103.73 2.18 Sept 1986 1.59 2.04 1.17 119.40 0.974 1.82 100.62 2.27 Dec 1986 1.50 1.91 1.15 116.46 0.961 1.99 116.24. 2.20 Mar 1987 1.42 1.77 1.09 107.90 0.912 1.98 110.32 2.14 June 1987 1.39 1.69 1.31 110.09 0.901 2.03 111.16 2.12 Sept 1987 1.40 1.53 1.27 110.66 0.895 2.01 111.02 2.06 Oct 1987 1.38 1.53 1.50 108.90 0.884 1.98 109.40 2.04 (1) $A includes KIRIBATI, NAURU. TONGA (Pa anga) and TUVALU (2) $NZ includes COOK ISLANDS, NIUE and TOKELAU. $US (USDI, or $1.00) includes AMERICA
N Samoa. Guan
1 and USTT I