Growing need

for indigenous businesses

By Grady Timmons

THE need for more indigenous businesses is a pressing concern in the Pacific islands. Recent history shows a heavy dependence on govern ment as the vehicle for development with less than satisfactory results. Now that government funds are in increasing ly short supply, Pacific island leaders are turning to the private sector to try to achieve a more balanced pattern of

growth. Indigenous businesses, say

many, are a key to making this happen.

Thus, the recent publication of Island Entrepreneurs: Problems and Perform ances in the Pacific, is timely and re ances in the Pacific, is timely and re levant. Edited by former Center Re search Associate Te’o I.J. Fairbairn, this book examines the major aspects of in

digenous entrepreneurship with emph

asis on the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Mar shall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Western Samoa. It focuses on the motives of indigenous entrepreneurs for going into business, their training and educational backgrounds, their methods of operating and establishing businesses, and the reasons attributed to their suc cesses and failures.

According to Fairbairn, the potential of indigenous entrepreneurship is at the forefront of current development think ing. The reasons are many, but among

the most important, he says, is that

“strengthening indigenous island entrep

reneurship is necesssary if island peoples are to make a substantial contribution to the growth process.”

More indigenous businesses, he adds, “would help balance the economy, prom ote greater self-reliance and strengthen national identity and cohesion.”

The current situation, however, is far from encouraging. The private sector of most Pacific island economies is domin ated by non-indigenous entrepreneurs, primarily multinational firms which are active in such areas as manufacturing, mining, forestry, banking, tourism and

trading.

Fairbairn says that the indigenous business sector as it now exists is poorly

developed, essentially occupying the

periphery of the commercial sector. Op erations tend to be small and family oriented, are often conducted from make-shift premises, and are usually lo cated in rural areas.

The failure rate, says Fairbairn, has been high, although the situation varies from country to country. In the Cook Islands and Western Samoa, indigenous entreprenuers have done reasonably well. This is contrasted with Fiji, French Polynesia and the French territories of New Caledonia, where Fail bairn says in digenous entrepreneurship is at an “abysmally low level of development.”

The problem is particularly trouble some in Fiji, where the contrast between Fiji-Indians and indigenous Fijians is striking. Indeed, says Fairbairn, a major factor in the recent military coups in Fiji “probably relates to the longstanding grievances on the part of indigenous Fi jians over their virtual exclusion from

effective participation in the commercial business sector.”

One of the crucial questions the book explores is “why have the indigenous peoples of the Pacific region fallen so far behind?” Past research, says Fairbairn, shows that lack of mobility and limited experience and know-how are all factors.

So is weak motivation, which he says is often related to value systems and pre ferences rooted in the traditional cul tures.

Curiously, says Fairbairn, a vigorous entrepreneurship existed among many Pacific peoples prior to European con tact. In Papua New Guinea, a primitive form of capitalism existed that was “characterized by clear-cut concepts of

ownership of resources, employment,

profit, and accumulation of wealth.”

Similarly, extensive trade existed be tween many Pacific islands, particularly those in adjacent geographical groups.

In the 1860 s, during the post-contact period, a flurry of entrepreneurial activ ity occurred in the Cook Islands, and more recent examples include Papua New Guinea.

Moreover, says Fairbairn, indigenous entrepreneurship is tied to the need for a better balance between indigenous and non-indigenous businesses. “There is a growing dissatisfaction with the status quo,” he writes, “which is overwhelming ly dominated by multinational corpora tions and other non-indigenous groups in the business life of the region. • Island Entrepreneurs: Problems and Performances in the Pacific ($10) is an East-West Center book distributed by the University of Hawaii Press. To obtain a copy write to Uni versity of Hawaii Press, Order Department, 2840 Kolowalu Street, Honolulu. HI 96822. Or call (808) 948-8255. Postage will be billed. Copies may also be obtained by visiting the East-West Center Distribution Office, John A. Bums Hall, Room 1079. □