Tonga bank profit down

Trade Winds

Solpac reports new work

IN its latest report to the Australian Stock Exchange, the Australian-based ex plorer Solomon Pacific Resources NL Solpac has released details of field work which has begun on both the Wainivesi prospect in Fiji and at Malukuna in the Solomon Islands.

Work has started in Fiji after the wet season break, with exploration concen trated on the follow-up of regional targets which are within two kilometres of the Wainivesi mine area. Moderate to strong sulphide mineralisation was found about 400 metres west of the mine and assays are awaited. At about two kilometres from the mine, further in dications of base metal anomaly were discovered. Detailed soil sampling and trenching are planned for the next quarter.

Field work resumed at the Malukuna prospect with Poseidon Exploration Ltd becoming the operators of the joint ven ture. An intensive exploration program me of soil and rock chip sampling began and preparations were under way to ev aluate several regional targets in the li cence area. A team of up to five geolog ists was expected to be working on the project during August. On Choiseul and Santa Isabel islands a review of gold ex ploration results to date is in progress with a view to seeking a joint venture partner to conduct further work.

Cook Islands hook-up COOK Islands is to have a high-quality inter-island and overseas telephone ser vice available 24 hours a day under a new service to be introduced by OTC International, of Australia, and its New Zealand counterpart, Telecom Networks and International Ltd. The country’s parliament will need to pass new legisla tion setting up Telecom Cook Islands, which will be 60 per cent owned by the government and the balance by the over seas partners. Eventually full ownership will pass to the Cook Islands, and Tele com Cook Islands will be responsible for managing the country’s merged national and international telecommunications service.

Tuvalu pig trial THE British government has provided |ABO,OOO to Tuvalu so the small Pacific nation can conduct trials to determine whether small piggeries can be viable on the outer islands and provide meat to the capital of Funafuti. Pig breeding stock will be supplied to small-scale com mercial farmers, and pigs are being

brought from Fiji for the experiment.

Yap imports Sri Lankans

TAKING advantage of free access to the United States market, a joint venture company established on the island of Yap in the Federated States of Mic ronesia is opening a garment factory.

Because the local population is not keen to take up fulltime employment, the company has imported 250 women workers from Sri Lanka. Eventually the company, part-owned by the Taiwan cor

poration Kingtex, plans to train local

employees. It was intended to bring in 700 Sri Lankan workers.

New Burke ship THE John Burke Group has introduced the 5000-tonne vessel, Royal Star, in an effort to expand the company’s service between Australia and Papua New Guinea. She will carry both breakbulk and containerised cargo.

Tonga bank profit down

PROFITS were down 21 per cent to $T3.068 million for the Bank of Tonga to the year ended last December 31. But chairman Frank Conroy said the result was excellent in a difficult year, includ ing a fall in Australian dollar deposit rates income from this source drop ped from $T4.857 million to $T3.917 million. But local interest income was up.

The year also included computerisation of the Vava’u branch and the continued upgrading of the main computer

operated programmes.

PNG gold production down

PAPUA New Guinea’s gold production declined last year for the second time in a row. Consolidated Goldfields Pic re ports that 33 tonnes were exported last year, most of that coming from the Ok Tedi and Bougainville mines but both mines had production interrupted, Ok Tedi by a strike and Bougainville by the mine’s closure on May 15. It is expected that exports will fall again this year with the continuing closure of Bougainville, but this will be partly offset from the start of work at the Misima mine.

Coleman’s Asian stand AMERICAN Samoa’s Governor, Peter Tali Coleman, told a group of visiting Hong Kong businessmen that the terri tory would continue to be selective about the foreign investment it allowed. He said American Samoa was not poor, money would not open all doors and that Asian investment would be assessed selectively.

Kiribati copra link A PRIVATE shipping company, believed to be owned by Kum Kee family in terests, is to come to the rescue of Kiri bati copra exporters. Its new 200-tonne ship, the Tovata , is to provide a regular service to Majuro in the Marshall Islands an established market for Kiribati suppliers but one which has been ham pered recently by shipping problems.

Coffee agency warning PAPUA New Guinea’s parliamentary opposition has warned of problems “worse than Bougainville” if the govern ment abolishes the Coffee Development Agency (CDA). Opposition leader Paias Wingti predicted that the employment and cuts in export revenue which would follow the CDA’s closure would cause chaos in the country. The agency was established in 1987 to combat coffee rust and rehabilitate smallholder plantations.

Wingti’s statement followed the govern ment decision to abolish the CDA and distribute the agency’s K 3.5 million budget among the coffee-growing pro vinces.

Sugar profits down

LOWER sugar content in cane due to bad weather depressed the profit for the year to March 31 for the Fiji Sugar Cor poration. The corporation announced a net profit of SFIO.B million, compared with $ll.B million the previous year.

Chairman Lyle Cupit said another prob lem for ESC was the resignation of many Fiji Indian white collar staff after the military coups; the corporation had also lost Indian tradesmen.

Berghuser buys into cannery

PROMINENT Papua New Guinea businessman Sir Hugo Berghuser has ex tended his meat canning interest with the purchase of a quarter share in the Morobe Food Processing Company for K 500,000. The stake was purchased from J C Hutton company, in Australia.

The Morobe operation, which is three quarter-owned by the Morobe provincial government, is in receivership. Sir Hugo, who owns a meat cannery in Port Mores by, has said he wants the Morobe com pany to continue providing local employ ment.

More cargo space for Pago HAWAIIAN Airlines’ decision to use LlOll TriStar wide-bodied jets on its Honolulu-Sydney route will mean in creased cargo capacity into Pago Pago, which will remain the one stopover on the weekly service. The service will begin in early September, and the TriStars car ry 350 people compared with 194 on the existing DC-8 service. But the large jet also has considerably greater cargo hold space, and a Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson said the company was looking for extra cargo revenue from its improved connection with American Samoa.

Asians eye Pacific links SEVERAL Asian countries, particularly Thailand and South Korea, are in terested in extending their airline ser vices to the South Pacific, according to Fiji’s Secretary for Civil Aviation, Robin Yarrow. He said, when speaking to a regional workshop in Fiji to discuss civil aviation, that some interest could be de scribed as “definite”.

Niugini Airbus approved

AIR Niugini has been given government permission to buy a second Airbus at the cost of SUS 62 million. In the meantime, the national carrier will lease an Airbus from Australian Airlines until the new aircraft is delivered. Prime Minister Rab bie Namaliu, in announcing the govern ment’s purchase of the aircraft, said it would enable Air Niugini to expand its services to New Zealand and Fiji.

Vanuatu bans potato imports

VANUATU, in a bid to encourage local production of the root vegetables, has banned imports of potatoes. The govern ment has indicated it will reconsider the ban in January if local production does not meet the country’s needs.

New permit rule for Tuvalu PERMITS are needed for imported fruit and vegetables following the discovery of new pests in Tuvalu, including an insect which destroys pawpaw trees and one which attacked beans and cabbages. The country’s Agriculture Department sus pects the pests arrived in vegetables im ported from Fiji.

Command gets PNG foothold THE Australian company, Command Petroleum NL, has become a player in the Papua New Guinea oil search after an equity-for-assets swap with troubled explorer Kundu Petroleum Ltd. Com mand now has a 15 per cent carried interest in one of Kundu’s main licences, PPL6B, after a SA3.B million scheme of arrangement with Kundu’s shareholders and creditors (Kundu having earlier this year requested suspension from the Au stralian Stock Exchange after it ran into financial difficulties).

Kundu shareholders will get six mil lion Command shares on the basis of one Command share for every 15.4 Kundu stock units, while creditors will receive shares at the equivalent of 66tf in the dollar.

New Hawaiian carrier DISCOVERY Airlines will begin operat ing as a new inter-island carrier in De cember with a fleet of five new BAe 146- 200 jets, the fleet to be expanded to 12 aircraft when all the new aircraft are del ivered. Discovery will develop an exten sive network in the Hawaiian islands.

Tonga interest limit set TONGA’S new National Reserve Bank has set 13.5 per cent as the maximum interest rate which can be charged by local banks on new loans. Banks have also been told their average rate must not go above 11.5 per cent.

It is expected that the new high limit, up from 10 per cent, will lead to in creased interest paid on deposits, and the government hopes that more money will thus be attracted to accounts at the Bank of Tonga and so provide more sav

ings for investment lending.