Welcome Asia

Business

By Martin Tiffany

THE SOUTH Pacific’s multi million dollar trade with South-East Asia is set to be boosted by the establish ment of three trade offices in Asia.

There are plans for the first to be setup in Tokyo next year.

In July, a feasibility study on the set-up of the office was completed by the Forum Secretariat with help from the Japanese Government.

Peter Osborne, the Forum’s Trade and Investment division director, said they are waiting for the Japanese to indicate if they are able to fund the project.

The push for the establishment of a Tokyo trade office is the beginning of an aggressive trade focus on Asia by Forum Island countries, said Osborne.

He said the Forum also has plans to setup similar offices in China and Taiwan, while South Korea is also being looked at.

A lot will depend on the ability to get fund ing for the offices.

A South Pacific trade and investment mission visited China last year and, Osborne said, from this the potential for a trade office was seen.

Discussion have already been held with the Chinese Government and a concept proposal has been put forward to them.

Osborne, who recently returned from discussions with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, said in the next six months they would prepared a detailed study for the establishment of the office.

“At the moment, we are looking at options, it could be a one-person operation or a full-blown trade office,” said Osborne.

Next year, he said, they would look at developing a similar concept in Taipei (Taiwan). Osborne said they were eyeing a two-to-three-year time-frame to establish the Taiwan and China offices.

The rationale for starting the offices is to identify opportunities in the Asian mar ket and capture these opportunities.

Osborne said to do this they needed a ded icated presence in Asia.

At its September meeting in Madang, the South Pacific Forum supported the concept of the trade offices.

Osborne said the South Pacific had to make moves to take advantage of the opportunities that were developing with Asia’s dynamic growth.

But he stressed the need for urgency

because of competition from other places like Latin America.

If the South Pacific is able to get a small percentage of the Asian growth, Osborne said it would be significant for the region.

The planned offices are to promote regional trade, investment and tourism.

Similar offices are already operating in Auckland and Sydney.

Osborne said they work both ways as they allow exporters from Asia to go through them to get to the regional islands, making it much easief for exporters as they only had to deal with one office.

The bigger countries in the Pacific, such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea, would be the best placed to take advantage of the offices because of those countries’ diverse range of export goods. They have also made inroads into the Asian markets via trade and the tourism market.

PNG has already adopted a “Look North” policy, which is aimed at directing more trade attention towards Asia.

Fiji already has flights to Tokyo and Osaka, in Japan, and is looking at code sharing with Korean Air, which operates a Seoul/Auckland flight via Nadi.

Once the offices are established, Osborne said it would encourage better air and sea links with Asia.

Osborne said initially the smaller countries would only be able to use the offices to promote things such as their tourism potential. But in time, he said, he hoped the fact that the offices were in the various countries would encourage some of the smaller countries to find a way to take advantage of their presence.

He said niche markets would be the way to go for the smaller countries and he hoped the offices would help identify nich es for the various countries.

Tonga, for example, has, over the last few years, established a fairly lucrative squash pumpkin market in Japan.

Fiji already has an established market for fish in Japan and has started growing asparagus for off-season supply to Japan.

Seafood is an area the South Pacific countries could quite easily get into because of the abundance of seafood in the Pacific and the demand in Asia.

Osborne said the offices would be able to help identify niche markets and guide regional countries on what areas to devel op.

Asian countries already doing trade with the South Pacific include China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. ■

Pacific islands like Fiji are trying to get their share of the Asian economies. Capital Suva.