Pacific Voices

by Dan McGarry

[This article also appeared in the Vanuatu Daily Post under the Graham Crumb byline.]

It’s fairly natural in business to want a return on one’s investment. That’s pretty much the point of capitalism, after all. But investment implies risk, too; if you put your money into play, you are accepting at least a small likelihood that it will be lost. Normally, the riskier the venture, the higher the expected return if things go right.

In some endeavours, however, the risk is unavoidable and the reward is slow in coming – if it comes at all. Telecommunications infrastructure is one such area. Especially here in the Pacific, capitalisation can require investment levels that –rightly– make the average investor blanch. It’s no accident, therefore, that private sector players often seek institutional backing before embarking on large-scale projects.

The plain fact is that in this global marketplace, some sort of inducement is needed in order to make investment in the comparatively tiny Pacific market attractive. Pretend for a moment you’re an investor. Given the choice between backing a fibre-optic cable landing in Port Vila or one that lands in Jakarta, which would you choose?  All other things being equal, you’d be a fool to choose the former.

Competitors have cried foul in the past when concessionary financing was used to induce increased private sector participation in various Pacific telecoms markets, but experience shows that healthy competition has raised revenue levels across the board. Competition, even with its attendant risks, is better for all concerned.

The challenge, then, is how to make the capitalisation phase, with its necessary reduction in risk, lead seamlessly into a competition phase, with a level of risk characteristic of a healthy marketplace?

(more…)

Written by Major General Jerry Singirok (Rtd), MBE, DMS, Mil Science and Mgnt for the PiPP Pacific Debate 2012 in Port Vila, Vanuatu on Geopolitics. 

Introduction

We are gathered here today to address key issues affecting Pacific states in relation to superpower rivalry in the Pacific and to determine whether Pacific states should remain neutral or  take sides.  I am arguing that Pacific states should remain neutral.

To define the subject on hand, let’s briefly re-visit the concept of hegemony within international relations.

This concept  means the primacy of leadership would be exercised by hegemony, which is a state possessing sufficient capability to fulfill this role.  Other states within the system would now be required to define or redefine their relationship with the hegemon. (more…)

The keeping of a Samoan Flower

Is of great importance to girls of every status

A flower touched by many is degraded

Usually ruptured in public

To make the use of chicken blood impossible (more…)

An opinion piece by Martyn Awayang Namorong first published in The Age

Papua New Guineans are sick and tired of Australia’s attitude to them.

I’m on my first visit to Australia right now – and what an introduction to your country. A two-week run of four major cities where I’m meeting politicians, journalists and ordinary Australians.

I’m trying to help foster a relationship between Papua New Guineans and Australians beyond business, politics, diplomacy and academia.

After all, PNG is a lot more than the Kokoda Track and birds of paradise. We’re a nation of 7 million people who aspire to be better than we are. (more…)

An opinion piece by PiPP executive director, Derek Brien, first published in The Australian

DISMISSING the current diplomatic standoff between Australia and Vanuatu as a case of ‘the mouse that roared’ is a bad idea.

Neither does it help to view Pacific island countries solely as beneficiaries of Australia’s $1 billion aid program. Their strategic significance is only growing.

As the axis of power moves eastward, emerging Asian powers, including China, Indonesia and India are demonstrating increasing strategic interest in Australia’s backyard.

Within days of expelling the Australian Federal Police, Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Sato Kilman welcomed a delegation from Indonesia and offers to provide police and paramilitary training. Within 24 hours of that meeting, a Hercules aircraft loaded with equipment had arrived from Jakarta.

To resolve the current impasse and retain its strong footprint in the region, Australia would do well to recalibrate its relationships in the Pacific. (more…)

By Kalafi Moala

As Crown Prince and Minister of Foreign Affairs before his elevation to the Throne, King George V was asked for his thoughts about Tonga becoming a democracy. While he supported the move, he said he was more concerned that Tonga’s economy should be the main focus for the government and the people of Tonga. By posing the question of who wanted a poor democracy, he suggested strongly that there was little point in being a democracy if the economy couldn’t be fixed. With the principles that underpin it, a democracy is intended to be able to deliver economic benefits to its citizens. (more…)

Written by Nik Soni (first published on the Development Policy Blog) 

Has the donor world lost the plot? This is a question that most people I know who work in aid often ask themselves privately but few will raise publicly. Are the various contortions that those of us who work on the ground are forced to go through actually making the situation worse for people in developing countries or better?

It is true that the need for development assistance to help the most disadvantaged people is noble, sensible and smart. It is also true that more funds in this area would certainly help more people. But there is a growing concern amongst many practitioners in the field that those in charge of development at the highest institutional levels have simply lost touch with reality. (more…)