‘We need support of the state’

Jason Brown
An hour or two before sunrise, parents start packing their children, some still asleep, into cars for the two-hour commute to town.
Auckland? Sydney? New York? Paris?
Try Pape’ete.
Each weekday, Monday to Friday, thousands of Tahiti residents join the long, long queues of traffic, inching their way into town, kilometres on end.
The two-lane segments of the coastal ring road still slow to not much more than walking pace.
Large by eastern Pacific standards, Pape’ete serves as the capital of French Polynesia, a former TOM, or Overseas Territory, now, somehow, POM, an overseas country—still under France.
Traffic jams normally evoke images of big city snarls, but on small islands with limited space, similar scenes happen twice-a-day.
So much so that the government is seriously considering a big city option—monorail.
News of one track minds emerged briefly from a last-minute trip by Oscar Temaru, re-elected yet again as president of French Polynesia last month.
During the trip, painted as a “total, total, total success”, Temaru met with Dominique Bussereau, Secretary of State for Transport.
They discussed a range of options, joining others such as a second administrative and port town on the southside of Tahiti.
“We will prepare a memorandum of agreement and work together with the High Commission and the Ministry of Transport in Paris,” said Temaru.
Pressure on transport infrastructure continues to grow despite a huge slump in tourism traffic that Temaru describes as “catastrophic”.
Some hotels are down to as little as 20 percent occupancy some days, he told the local media.
A particular loss was the departure of the Tahitian Princess, a cruise liner based there since 2002.
Cruise ship numbers were down 64 percent, according to the Statistics Institute of French Polynesia.
January 2009 arrivals were down 3000 to just one short of 10,000, thus registering the worst month for tourism since January 1995.
Only signs of growth came from home tourism, visitors staying in private homes, up by nearly 10 percent.
Arrivals from the lucrative United States market have slipped 45% over the same month last year, the 24th consecutive month of lower figures.
France saw a six percent increase, most of those staying in private homes.
Medium term outlook?
Not good, with operators of the four master Star Flyer announcing its decision to quit the Tahiti market in February 2010.
Like other industries, tourism has suffered badly from five years of political instability, with the February changeover—the eight administration since February 2004.
“He’s back!” chirped Agence France Press, the state news agency.
A long time supporter of independence, Temaru said “instability problems” and global economic crisis calls for his administration to “normalise” relations with the state.
“We need the support of the state,” he told daily, La Depeche.
And support, he says, he got.
Patting himself, Temaru began a press conference on his return by confiding he had gained two kilogrammes while in Paris, a welcome news after a lengthy treatment for what is believed to be cancer.
Surprise: Temaru expressed “surprise” at what he said was a “warm welcome” in France despite the last-minute change from former President Gaston Tong Sang.
Paris is an exceptionally diplomatic town, not renown for a formality normally bordering on frigid, especially for long-time critics like Temaru.
Somehow Prime Minister François Fillon managed to find a spare 40 minutes for his surprise guest. Temaru also declared himself “very surprised” that his coalition partner, Senator Gaston Flosse, was quoted by the media as saying the Paris trip was a “failure”.
Along with a shopping list of infrastructure projects like airport extensions, harbour enlargements and solar panels for state houses, Temaru praised what he said was a “change of attitude within the State” to compensation claims from former nuclear test workers at Moruroa.
Tourism is set to claim most support.
Temaru said the tourism industry is the “largest source of foreign exchange and (French) Polynesia’s leading economic activity. It must be better supported, particularly during the global crisis we are experiencing.”
France is planning to spend some 150 million euros on LODEOM, economic development measures focused mainly on DOM—overseas departments— as part of a 1,522 billion euro tax relief package for the coming years.
As an “overseas country” or POM, the bulk of state support for French Polynesia comes under a different programme.
Double track funding streams like this mean leaders like Temaru need a one track mind to stay focused on the fallout from the global economic crisis—monorail or not.

• Jason Brown is editor of avaiki nius agency.