Solomons power

Trade Winds

Bank loan boosts Solomons power

A LOAN of US$4.7 million has been granted by the Asian Development Bank to help the Solomon Islands Electricity Authority expand the capac ity of its Lungga diesel power station by an additional four megawatts to help meet increasing demand in Honiara.

The loan is for 40 years and is interest free.

Vanuatu

Copra falls again LOW export prices have forced the Vanuatu Commodities Marketing Board to cut the price paid to copra growers from February. The new' price for hot air and sun-dried copra wall be US$l36 a tonne, a fall of US$45. The new price for smoked copra is US$9l per tonne.

Kiribati

KIRIBATI S state-owned fisheries com pany, Mautari Ltd, has closed and its employees have been laid off. Radio Kiribati reported that 1990 had been one of the company’s w'orst years, with a total catch of just 600 tonnes (compared to more than 2000 tonnes in 1989). The closure came shortly after Mautari signed an agreement to w'ork together with the now' Canadian-owned National Fisheries Development Company in the Solomon Islands. Mautari made a loss of more than $1.5 million (US$l.2 million) in 1990. The Kiribati Government is reported to have refused a loan guaran tee-of US$3BO,OOO to enable it to stay in business until the season opens in May.

Phosphate project dropped PLANS by a Melbourne company to resume phosphate mining on Banaba (also knowm as Ocean Island) in Kiribati have foundered on the question of machinery. Roche Brothers, which had devised a profit-sharing scheme with the

Kiribati Government and the island’s former residents, found that it could not undertake the project because the ma chinery left on the island proved imposs ible to restore and that was a crucial part of the plan. The Government on Tarawa had already approved resump tion of mining on Banaba and Tuta.

Niue

Audit reveals slack RENTS were not effectively collected on properties leased by the American Samoa Government, and lessee accounts had been allowed to fall in arrears to the tune of US$2BO,OOO in 1989, according to an audit report from the US Interior Department. It criticised the territory’s ineffective collection procedures, lack of penalty payments and failure to enforce lease terms. It also said government property w'as underinsured and leased with inappropriate rental fees.

Freighter misses Apia A US freight company, ABR Express, had planned to include Apia in its DC -8 air cargo sendee out of American Samoa, but the initial flight in December had to be cancelled because there was not enough cargo to cover the costs. An ABR spokesman said the company had originally believed there would be 857

sacks of taro and some fish to be picked up for the Honolulu and Los Angeles markets. The company was hoping that a second attempt to call at Western Samoa would prove more successful.

New aircraft wanted POLYNESIAN Airlines is looking to acquire a new Boeing 757, to replace its ageing 727-200 tri-jet but a decision to re-equip will be taken only if the current economic problems in New Zealand and Australia do not affect passenger loads. Polynesian is now oper ating a trans-Tasman service between Auckland and Sydney as part of its flights from Apia, and also flies into Brisbane.

Micronesia

FSM Bond issue MEDIUM term bonds, with maturity ranging from nine months to 12 years, are to be issued by Merrill Lynch Capital Markets in an effort to raise US$3OO million for projects in the Federated States of Micronesia. Repayment of the bonds will be made out of cash grants the FSM receives under its compact with the United States. The FSM Economic

Development Authority has already

made its first grant under the bond issue US$5.l million for a fish processing

plant in Pohnpei. □