Kiribati Shipping

Business Bulletin

Aust helps set up

PNG stock exchange

AUSTRALIAN firms interested in the establishment of Papua New Guinea’s Stock Exchange were invited to a conference in Port Moresby on March 14-15. The stock exchange is expected to be operating in Port Moresby towards the end of the year.

PNG Prime Minister Paias Wingti had talks about the stock exchange with business communities in Australia and New Zealand during his recent visit to the two countries. Meanwhile, A PNG based hotel group is preparing the final touches for a US$4 million float on the Australian Stock Exchange. Islands Ho tel Ltd is due to list on the ASX on April 27 offering six million $1 shares to raise funds to buy two hotels in Solomon Islands the Hibiscus in Honiara and the Gizo in Western Province.

Malaysian bank gets

PNG go-ahead

A LEADING Malaysian finance com pany has been given the go-ahead to establish a new commercial bank in

Papua New Guinea. Malaysian Banking

Berhard was granted the licence in February by Finance Minister Masket

langalio.

One condition of the licence was the company must sell 30 per cent of the shares in the bank to PNG investors. The first branch will be established in Port Moresby with four other branches planned around the country by 1998.

The bank will not be granted foreign currency dealer status like other com mercial banks.

Kiribati Shipping

begins new service

KIRIBATI Shipping Services Ltd, which operates a service from Fiji to Funafuti and Tarawa, commenced a monthly service from Fiji to Nauru and the Marshall Islands on March 2. The 50-container capacity vessel Arktis Sun has been chartered by the company for this service.

The company, formerly known as Shipping Corporation of Kiribati, has also established a trans-shipment service via Tarawa to the Line Islands. The Line Islands consist of Fanning, Washington and Christmas islands and are owned and administered by the Kiribati govern ment.

Abandoned gold mine

to reopen in Fiji

AN abandoned gold mine on Fiji’s second largest island, Vanua Levu, is set to reopen this year generating more than 100 jobs. Pacific Island Gold Company, registered and based in Sydney, has applied for a mining lease for the Mount Kasi gold mine.

Pacific Island Gold chief executive

Christopher Adsett said the operation would begin as soon as the government approved the lease and landowners agreed to the use of their land. According

to statistics provided by geologists, Pa

cific Islands Gold would be aiming to produce 20,000 ounces of gold a year.

Economist predicts

Hawaii tourism boom

A LEADING economist says the outlook for Hawaiian tourism is bright. Bank of Hawaii’s chief economist David Ramsour says Hawaii’s troubled tourism industry won’t slide any further and may even pick up by the end of the year.

Ramsour says if the economic rebound in other parts of the United States continues, an improvement in tourism should offset what will be weakness in other parts of the Hawaiian economy. He says construction will remain down for the remainder of the year, but the main danger to the economy would be from any trade war with Japan, which could send interest rates up, cutting off any economic recovery.

Air Vanuatu buys

Boeing 737-400

VANUATU’S national carrier, Air

Vanuatu, is now operating its Boeing

737-400 aircraft to neighbouring New Caledonia. Airline chairman Kalpokor Kalsakau said the new aircraft was a result of increased demand on the sector.

Air Vanuatu already operates seven weekly flights to New Caledonia using a 21-seat Bandeirante aircraft.

Panguna copper mine

cost about USssoom

THE cost of returning the defunct Panguna copper mine on Bougainville to full production is expected to be about US$5OO million. At a board meeting of

Bougainville Copper, the CRA

controlled company posted a net loss of just over $3 million for 1993 against a $1.5 million loss in 1992.

In 1989, a secessionist uprising forced the huge PNG mine to close. Company secretary Brian Batholomaeus says al though PNG security forces are now reported to be patrolling the area of the mine, access remains impossible and the exact extent of damage was unknown.

Taiwan group seeks

trade opportunities

A TRADE delegation from Taiwan was recently in Vanuatu looking at invest ment opportunities. The seven-member delegation was led by Vanuatu’s trade commissioner in Taiwan, John Yu, and included a Taiwanese shipping company

supervisor and logging specialists.

They visited industries in the northern town of Luganville on the island of

Espirito Santo including logging and

milling activities. The team also met

government and business leaders.

ADB approves tuna

development grant

THE Asian Development Bank says it has approved a U 55495,000 grant to 12 Pacific island nations, including Papua New Guinea, to develop their tuna industries. A bank spokesman says the grant will go towards evaluating possible tuna processing industries.

All 12 countries have large tuna resources in their territorial waters. But they do not have the facilities and infrastructure to process the tuna, and most of their catch is harvested by ships from developed countries and processed outside the region.

Niue cautious of

tourism programme

THE Tourism, Marketing and Research Bureau of Niue says the island’s culture and environment is under threat unless the development of the visitor industry is planned and controlled. The privately funded bureau says the government has indicated that it plans to spend millions of dollars on tourism but has no long or short term plans for the expansion.

The bureau claims occupancy rates in the existing properties have been low over the past year. It says with the reduction in direct air services from Fiji and New Zealand, it is unlikely the figures will increase dramatically.

Penrhyn Atoll set

for pearl farming

PENRHYN Atoll, in the northern Cook Islands, looks set to become the centre of

the country’s research into pearl farming

with the construction of the Tongareva Marine Research Station. Construction is expected to be completed in around four months.

The station is part of a 3 1 /z year project for the development of commercial pearl

farming in Penrhyn lagoon and else

where in the Cooks. The US$2.4 million project began in 1990 and is funded by the US Agency for International Devel opment.

Marshalls to set

up commercial bank

MARSHALL Islands’ president Amata Kabua has announced the government is on the verge of establishing a commercial bank for the people of the country. The said people often experienced difficulties in getting loans from the existing banks and their high interest rate is one of the reasons for setting up the commercial bank.

Kabua said all growing nations needed their own bank. All three com mercial banks in the Marshalls Bank of Hawaii, Bank of Guam and Bank of Marshall islands are foreign controlled.