Transport’s Rocky Future

FEW contemporary issues strike as close to the heart of the Pacific as transport, the subject of this month’s Special Report. As writer Robin Bromby reveals, the dilemma facing many of the region’s more favoured states is that they cannot achieve real economic growth without an effective transport infrastructure yet they cannot create such an infrastructure without having first achieved meaningful economic growth.

What lies at the heart of the transport problem (and it is no mere academic question, but a matter in some cases of sheer quality of life) is a system that is must be, in a world context run for the benefit of the large and pow erful. Yet it is just as true that those operators would lose only a minuscule amount of their profits by co-operation with regional transport networks rather than consigning freight and passengers to Pacific destinations only when it is in their immediate interest to do so.

How much, for example, would major flag airlines lose by allowing regional networks a share of their revenue?

When today’s giant aircraft fly more often than not half empty, their owners might argue that to allow any intru sion into their arrangements is to diminish their profits even further. This is patent nonsense: permitting a small regional airline access to coastal destinations in larger markets only feeds those markets’ internal and inter national transport networks. Everyone benefits.

The same explanation has been given to justify the cost, and frequency, of shipping services to island destina tions. Poor facilities do increase shipping costs, and low volume does mean charges are increased as timetables are lengthened. But a similar solution would see little, if any, decrease in major lines’ advantages ... and would effec tively remove the headache of providing, much less co ordinating, services to unimportant destinations. If a re gional shipping line such as Forum were granted a signif icant share of inter-islands and regional shipping, it would enhance the region’s ability to provide products and serv ices that would attract business.

The time for excuses is passing. Clients will complain until they find someone else more willing to listen. and governments, like businesses, may then discover that the people listening are not those they would like to see gain ing influence in the region. □