ndustry criticised

Business Bulletin

Q'land market for

Solomons fish

FISHERMEN in the Solomon Islands’

Western Province will soon start selling their fresh sea food in Queensland, Australia. This is the result of nego tiations between the Western Provincial authorities and Australian firm Pacific Air Express Limited which has just started a direct air service to the province.

Pacific Air will be buying crayfish and trout from Gizo and Munda towns and transport them to Townsville twice a week. The company said other types of fish would be considered for the Queens land market later. The direct air service to the Western Province brings Austra lian tourists and fresh vegetables.

Americans back out

of Marshalls project

AN American company which planned to set up a multi-million dollar tourist resort on an uninhabited atoll in the Marshall Islands says it may abandon the project. Islanders Investment says it is losing interest after being unable to negotiate a deal with dissenting land owners.

Company owner John Miller says last December he signed a deal with six raditional leaders, giving him a 50-year ease for Erikub Atoll four US$4 million. sut Miller said after he had shipped in :quipment and supplies to build the esort, a group of landowners filed suit to top the deal claiming the wrong leaders

lad signed the contract.

An attempt to reach an out-of-court ettlement has failed. Miller says his ompany will pursue alternatives in Fiji, Kiribati and the Cook Islands.

looks pearl

ndustry criticised

jOOK Islands opposition leader erepai Maote says the country’s black earl industry is failing to boost substan ally the development of the outer lands.

The Cooks black pearl industry had een hailed as a potential rival for that

i neighbouring French Polynesia. But

laoate says it isn’t doing much to help sople of the island of Manihiki where ic industry is centred. He said the )vemment had spent too much money i projects on Rarotonga and not lough on the development of the outer lands.

Meanwhile, Maoate says the stoppage work on the Sheraton Hotel project ves the government the opportunity to t out of its financial commitment.

Work stopped because a quasi official ganisation in Italy had delayed agree-

ing to insure a loan for the project.

Maoate said the loan agreement should bind both parties including the hotel’s Italian backers. Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Henry has defended his decision to carry on with the multi-million dollar hotel project. Sir Geoffrey says his government inherited the project from the previous Democratic Party govern ment.

Pogera gold

output down

GOLD production at Papua New Guinea’s Pogera mine has dropped because of lower grades of ore. The owners of the joint venture mine, the biggest gold mine outside South Africa, said production in the first half of the year was down by a third compared with the same period last year. Pogera is expected to produce 1.1 million ounces of gold this year down from 1.49 million ounces last year.

Pogera, which began operating in 1990, is currently estimated to have gold reserves of 17.9 million ounces.

Sugar company to

lay off 65 workers

ONE of Hawaii’s oldest sugar plan tations, the Waialua Sugar Company, will lay off 65 workers. Company presi dent Michael O’Brien says the lay-offs amount to the loss of one-sixth of the work force.

O’Brien said 12 per cent of the management work force was also being

pushed out using a voluntary retirement

plan. He said the cuts were necessary for the business to survive following a loss of US$2B million over the past five years.

Tourism hope

from Japan

A NEW survey in Japan says there is renewed interest in travel destinations to

the South Pacific. The Japan Travel Bureau survey shows Guam and Saipan, in the Northern Marianas, can expect to attract about 200,000 Japanese tourists in the next few months.

But it says Hawaii is unlikely to see an end to the slump in arrivals of Japanese tourists who, in the past, have made up a quarter of all visitors. The survey also found that New Zealand and Australia were attractive destinations. But it said on their next holidays, Japanese travel lers intended to spend on average about 10 per cent les than last year.

Minister warns

PNG landowners

PAPUA New Guinea’s Minister for Forests Tim Neville says national re source owners are falling into the trap of accepting large sums of money from foreign investors. He says many groups are against the governments new strict forestry laws because they had been bribed by foreigners.

In July, the minister told Malaysian company Rimbunan Hijan to leave if it did not like the laws which would guide logging operations in PNG. Neville said foreign companies were wasting time challenging laws that were good for the people of PNG.

Lights out

for Leonardo

LEONARDO, Nauru’s $3 million gamble on the London stage, closed on July 10. The musical, produced by one of Nauru’s financial advisers, Duke Minks, received dismal reviews when it opened the previous month. (See report in August PIM.) Presumably, the citi zens of Nauru lost everything the governmennt had invested in the show.

More International

flights to Niue

THE number of international flights to Niue each week has increased to seven.

Western Samoa carrier Polynesian Air lines is adding two extra flights to its schedule and Air Nauru is already flying to Niue twice a week out of Auckland.

Coinciding with the additional flights, Niue’s Minister of Finance Sani Lakatani has announced that government was looking for investors for a 200-room

hotel/ two golf course project. Three

American tourist wholesalers, who re cently visited the island, say they’re keen to market it. They predict about 500 American visitors will travel to Niue before the end of the year.

However, some local operators say there are only 100 beds available. They have queried the proposed plans. □

Henry: defends project.