A new hope, a new source of income




For decades, the whole of the Markham Valley in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea was famous for its betel nut.
It was good betel nut for those who liked chewing the golden green nuts. The people who grew and sold betel nut made thousands of kina from it each year.
Highlanders descended upon the valley with thousands of kina and bought bags of the infamous nuts which they took back to the Highlands and made huge profits out of it.
For the Markham Valley people, it was easy money which they did not really have to work hard for it. The betel nut palms just kept on producing bunches of nuts every week throughout the year.
One day a little beetle arrived. It was deadly and the economy of the Wampar people stretching down to Labu and on to Salamaua in the Huon Gulf District was wiped out in no time.
Betel nut palms stood headless everywhere. It was a disaster no one could fix. It came like a cyclone and the whole betel nut industry which thousands of families depended on disappeared overnight.
Today, the situation remains the same. The headless palms are still standing reminding the owners of the disaster that had struck them.
Then came Bris Kanda—the bearer of the good news and hope for a brighter future ahead.
Villagers who were resigned to a hopeless future are now sitting up and listening. They are now working—turning their land into hectares of cocoa trees.
The headless betel nut trees still stand but below them the cocoa seedlings are growing.
Bris Kanda, a non-profit orgaisation funded by the New Zealand Government, was invited by the Member for Huon Gulf, Sasa Zibe, to help his people.
It is a success story for New Zealand Aid agency NZAID and the Huon people. The programme which now sees thousands of village people in the Huon Gulf receiving expert help to create economic wealth for themselves and their families to sustain a livelihood that will last for generations to come.
Through Bris Kanda, thousands of villagers who have never planted one cocoa seedling in their life are now growing cocoa in hectares.
The Markham Valley kunai grass is now being turned into plantations of cocoa to give the people a new hope and a new source of income.
Paul Winias, a Sepik man who is married to a woman from Gabsongkeg village near Nadzab Airport, has never grown cocoa in his life. Now he is become a true cocoa farmer expanding the family cocoa plantation at Tanam on the way to the airport.
Winias says he is a happy man now because cocoa is now giving his family the confidence they need to live their lives. The income from cocoa is making a great difference to their lives, he says.
Winias says the future of the area now depends on cocoa and it is the young people who can make it happen.
Many young men—many of whom have their own young families—have taken up the challenge from Winias and Bris Kanda.
Bris Kanda General Manager, Lukis Romaso, says his organisation is fully committed to helping young people throughout the Huon District undertake cocoa planting, inland fishing and other economic projects that will help sustain their livelihood.
Bris Kanda has made 2009 as the year to implement its Industrial Development Plan and the main activities are cocoa growing and fish farming.
Vanilla is also being given a lot of attention as there is now a demand for it.
Romaso stressed that Bris Kanda stands ready to help them source funds through the Wau Microbank to improve their farms.
“There is money available but we need to apply for it,” he said.
He has encouraged farmers to talk less and put into action what they have learnt.
His final words to them was: “ If you are financially independent, you will have less need to ask politicians for handouts.”
These days truck loads of betel nuts are making their way down the Highlands highway past the Markham Valley into Lae picking up none from the valley of the golden nuts. Today, cocoa is fast replacing betel nut as the main source of income for the Wampar people.
Now there is more good news on the way. Cocoa from the Huon Gulf could soon be turned into chocolate in Germany, according to Romaso.
Romaso has told cocoa farmers that negotiations so far are looking positive and that the German chocolate producers want more samples of the cocoa produced in the Huon Gulf for analysis.
Romaso meets regularly with farmers from the Gabsongkeg area to talk about their farms and plans to improve the quality and quantity of cocoa produced by them.
He has praised farmers for the hard work they are putting into developing their land to produce more cocoa.
“There is more money in the land if you are prepared to work for it,” Romaso told them.
Romaso keeps telling farmers they need to work extra hard to ensure they maintained the high quality of their cocoa in order to meet strict export standards. He said German chocolate producers demand consistent high quality cocoa and it was up to the Huon cocoa farmers to ensure they met those conditions.
Romaso has urged Huon District people not to sit back and expect things to happen for them but to utilise the expertise of  Bris Kanda to set up economic projects to sustain their livelihood.
New Zealand aid is certainly having an impact on the lives of people in the Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea.—By Oseah Philemon

BSP buyout of Colonial Fiji
Bank South Pacific’s (BSP) proposed buyout of Colonial Fiji will create a leading regional bank for Fiji and the South Pacific, says a senior executive of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which owns the Fiji company.
CBA’s Group Executive for Financial Services Gary Mackrell said while he understood there may be “some disappointment and concerns”, CBA strongly believed the buyout would be a good opportunity for Colonial Fiji”.
BSP Fiji general manager Greg Watson would not comment on the offer by the bank. BSP is Papua New Guinea’s largest retail and commercial bank, and which has regional representation in Niue, Solomon Islands and operates two branches in Fiji.
While a final price will be reached by both parties following the completion of due diligence, if the sale goes ahead, BSP has agreed to no job losses as a direct result of the acquisition. It has also requested that it be allowed to continue using the Colonial Fiji name and brand for a number of years.
The Commonwealth Bank looks set to be the first Australian financial institution to exit from Fiji after a 20 percent currency devaluation and some harsh lending regulations made business difficult in the military-regulated country.

Air Niugini cancels direct KL service
Air Niugini is cancelling its Port Moresby/Kuala Lumpur direct flights from July 2. Instead, this service will be combined with the Singapore service.
The Singapore-Kuala Lumpur service departs Port Moresby at 4.50 pm, arrives in Singapore at 9.10 pm, leaves Singapore at 10.20 pm and arrives in Kuala Lumpur at 11.10 pm.
Chief executive officer Wasantha Kumarasiri said the change was part of the airline’s new flight schedules that aimed to boost customer convenience and minimise operating costs.

Continental resumes services
Continental Airlines is restoring its ties with the CNMI by making a major commitment to resume flight services this summer, according to the Marianas Variety.
Continental Airlines Inc. managing director Charles Duncan said their Boeing 737 will provide flights from Saipan to Narita, Japan from July 18 to Sept. 23.
Duncan said the 155-seat Boeing 737 will be based in CNMI for 65 days and will go on daily flights from Narita to Saipan and from Saipan to Narita.
“We are excited to be back—we will see how it works and hope this will be the beginning of more good things to come,” he said.

Slower growth:  World Bank
The world economy is headed into an era of slower growth, according to a World Bank report released yesterday, with developing nations bearing the brunt of a stubborn credit crunch, reports Washington Post.
Despite recent signs that the recession is easing in the United States and Britain, the downturn continues to cripple developing nations. Rising unemployment has left émigrés with less money to send home, the drop in consumer spending has killed demand for exports, and foreign banks and investors have pulled back.
As a result, total private capital flows into developing nations shrank in 2008 to $707 billion, down from a 2007 peak of $1.2 trillion.

Revitalising offshore industry
A bill is being  tabled in parliament as a result of an initiative by the Cook Islands Government to revitalise the offshore industry so that the Cook Islands can obtain greater economic benefit from financial services. In 2008, the government formed an Offshore Industry Committee that comprised members of both the public and private sector. 
The committee’s mandate was to look at ways to increase the future contribution of the offshore industry to the Cook Islands. 
Compared to other offshore jurisdictions the offshore industry in the Cook Islands had failed to grow in recent years—it was stagnating.
There was some growth in the numbers of international trusts and international companies being registered but the growth could only be described as minimal.
The bill will establish a small statutory authority, the Financial Sector Development Authority that will have as its objectives to encourage, promote and develop the Cook Islands financial services industry to achieve sustained growth, which is economically beneficial, socially responsible and reputable.