road project

Business Bulletin

Capital gains

tax

The Fiji government’s proposal to introduce a capital gains tax has been criticised by the Fiji Institute of Account ants. Institute president Vishnu Prasad said the tax would discourage overseas investment and would make local inves tors think twice before putting money into long term projects. He said one of the factors investors looked for was capital gain at the end of a certain period of investment. But a capital gains tax would be detrimental to Fiji’s investment market.

Plane purchase

on hold

Fiji’s domestic airline, Fiji Air, has shied away from buying two more aircraft from China. New chief executive David Young said he stopped the purchase because it would have been unprofitable.

The company had announced plans last year to acquire two more 19-seater Harbin Y-17 aircraft from China. Young said Fiji Air would need to get a larger aircraft to meet the increasing demands of domestic travel and passengers had been critical of the cramped interior of the Chinese Harbin planes.

Pacific at

Korean expo

Pacific Forum countries will display their national heritage and products at an international exposition at the South Korean city of Taejon beginning this month. Western Samoa, Cook Islands and Niue will not be attending the three month exhibition. The South Korean government has agreed to meet travel and accommodation costs of all represen tatives to the expo from the Pacific.

Papua New Guinea’s ambassador to South Korea, Lucy Bogari, has been

appointed commissioner-general of the South Pacific Multi-national Pavilion.

Board

reinstated

The new Solomon Islands government has reinstated the Central Bank board which was dismissed by the former Mamaloni government earlier this year.

Former finance minister Christopher Columbus Abe had suspended the Cen tral Bank board members in January for

allegedly acting inconsistently with gov

ernment economic policies and national interests. But Andrew Nori, finance minister in the new coalition government of Francis Billy Hilly, has revoked the dismissal order and reinstated the board members. They have welcomed their reinstatement saying they will now be able to perform the statutory functions of the Central Bank which had ceased in

January.

Pangia gets Fiji

road project

A Papua New Guinea construction company will upgrade and seal a section of one of Fiji’s two main highways, the Kings Road, for US$lB million. Fiji’s Public Works Department has awarded the contract to Pangia Construction Ltd after considering eight tenders for the work. The project is part of Fiji’s road upgrading project and is expected to be completed in 1995.

BMP to sell

PNG shares

BHP Petroleum, a partner in Papua New Guinea’s Kutubu oil project, has decided to sell US$2OO million of its shares. It hopes to make a profit of US$5OO,OOO from this transaction. The company’s head of public relations, Don Norton, said the company was selling the shares purely for commercial reasons, not be cause of the poor investment climate in

PNG. Norton said the company would continue to maintain its interest in PNG.

PNG’s mines and petroleum minister, Masket langalio, has also denied the sale had anything to do with lack of investor confidence in the country.

New

guidelines

The Papua New Guinea government is to introduce new investment guidelines for all public institutions and insurance agencies in the country. Finance and planning minister Sir Julius Chan said this was to ensure that availability of credit was combined with measures aimed at improving competitiveness. Sir Julius also said the government had already made reductions to corporate tax and import duties in the 1993 budget to encourage investment and the creation of

new jobs.

Short run

for Leonardo

Leonardo the Nauru-government backed West End musical is to close after less than a month following disas trous reviews. The musical is about a supposed love affair between Leonardo da Vinci and Mona Lisa. The show was co-written and produced by Duke Minks, a British entrepreneur, songwriter and investment adviser to the Nauru government. Minks, who had never staged a musical before, told London media, critics had killed the show. However, he admitted he was not really happy with the production. Nigel Everett, general manager of the Strand Theatre where Leonardo was showing, said critics had made “cruel and un necessary” comments about the show and its funding.

Emperor expects

production shortfall

Gold production at Emperor Mines Ltd’s operations in Fiji is expected to fall 12 per cent short of budget this financial year.

Poor grades and mining difficulties have marred the final quarter and will lower output in the first quarter of the 1993-94 year. But Emperor Mines expects to bounce back with a doubling of its reserves and resource base with a com mitment to lift annual milling capacity to one million tonnes from around 550,000.

The project would require debt capital of US$7-8 million in the next 18 months with repayment within the next two years of completion of the underground expansion.