Scope for the islands
NEW doors can open unexpectedly for those on the lookout for trading opportunities. Vanuatu and New Cale donia are benefitting from the opening of a new doorway into Australia at the small port of Yamba, on the east coast between Sydney and Brisbane.
Through it, the islands have established direct links with Australian business that could bring abundant returns for
everybody.
Yamba is a small resort town with a population of only a few thousand at the mouth of the Clarence River, northern NSW. But the surrounding Clarence Valley is a rich agricultural area, with growing industrial and business develop ment. Nearby is the small city of Grafton (pop. 1 7,000) spreading out on both sides
of the river, and Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane are easily reached by road and rail. This part of NSW north coast is one of Australia’s fastest growing regions because of its equable climate and the increasing movement of people and business north, away from the crowded cities of Melbourne
and Sydney.
Yamba’s new' significance to the islands is that it has become a first port of entry, with shipping links to the Pacific.
The islands can thus tap into Australian markets without having to do business in the big cities with their crowded ports. The easier pace and atmosphere in Grafton, which is the business centre of activity in the Clarence Valley, is friendly “country style”, which is the style of the islands, and island visitors doing business there say they immediately feel at home. And business can be conducted much more efficiently, more cheaply and with greater speed than in the case of, say, a city the size of Sydney with its greater distances and transport problems.
As far as I know, this is the first time that a particular region has initiated direct and independent business links with the islands. Grafton "and Port Vila have established a sister city relationship.
Trade groups from New Caledonia, Western Samoa and Vanuatu have in recent months visited Grafton, and one of the latest visitors was the Premier of Niue, Young Vivian, who had preliminary talks on likely opportunities. Grafton business leaders arc planning their own familiarisation trip to Western Samoa soon, and may include Niue on the schedule following Vivian’s visit.
Vanuatu’s Finance Minister, Willie Jimmy, was in Grafton at the end of February leading an important government delegation from the republic, which included Father Gerard Leymang, first secretary, Prime Minister’s office; Nicholson Worek, second secretary, Ministry of Finance; John Simbolo, Director of Customs and Waimini Perei, recently appointed Director of Tourism for Vanuatu.
The Clarence region has been buying copra, timber and
beer from Vanuatu, and the region has shipped sugar (it’s a cane growing area), aluminium boats and fire trucks. The first experimental ship ment of Vanuatu’s Tusker beer was very well received in the Clarence and it is likely to be marketed in the area as a boutique beer. Timber sales include old and unproductive coconut palms, which will be turned into furniture in Australia. The palm timber is very hard, with a beautiful
grain, and requires special processing.
Pioneering work on this timber has been done by the Pacific Green Furniture Company, which has been making furniture from it in Sigatoka, Fiji, for the past two years and is also
using it as a lightweight building
material.
The Vanuatu delegation also dis cussed with the Grafton & District
Business Development Board Ltd the possibility of shipping copra in through Yamba. This is worth examining, but there may be greater opportunities for a joint venture between Australian and island businesses that would result in the copra being crushed on the spot in Vanuatu and only the oil exported. Crushing can be a fairly simple process that doesn’t require highly sophisticated or expensive machinery to extract most of the oil, and the residue could be marketed locally as stock feed.
Jimmy told a gathering at Grafton that both island and Australian governments could help the growing trade relationships with the area Australia by being more flexible on immigrations and quarantine laws.
Among the advantages for Australian entrepreneurs of another direct link with island groups such as Vanuatu and New Caledonia is the springboard into Europe through Lome and the Common Market. New Caledonia’s recent increased trade activity has followed the political conciliation that has come from the Matignon Accords. France sees the strength ening of New Caledonia’s economy through improved trade and investment as a vital way of ensuring that the territory will become more fully integrated into the region and its long term dependence on France reduced. I discussed this development in some detail in my report in P/A/last month.
As I said then, the New Caledonian government is serious about making it easier to do business there, and that means Australia’s ability to do business more easily with France and with the Common Market. The EC will recognise a product as coming from new Caledonia if it has between 20 and 60 per cent added value, depending on the product, put on it in New Caledonia.
The Vanuatu delegation also took the opportunity of looking at Australia’s racing and casino industries, although not in Grafton. They spoke to Victoria’s Totalizator Agency Board, which manages race betting, about the possibility of the TAB setting up operations in Vanuatu. The government, of course, would get its cut.