Islands Business - WHISPERS

Watch Sogavare: Nervous times for the Australians when it comes to the Solomon Islands. Manasseh Sogavare could be back as Prime Minister around August. Finance specialist Sogavare used to be Prime Minister. As such, he strongly questioned the role and power of the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). Then, surprise, he was toppled in a vote of no confidence some in Honiara whisper had Australian fingerprints on it. Latest surveys ahead of the coming general elections suggest most people want Sogavare back as PM.

CTA snub: Appears the Fiji Government has again snubbed the FEMM’s rep to update them on the progress of PACER Plus negotiations. The FEMM meeting in the Northern Pacific had tasked the chief trade adviser to update the Fiji Government on how the negotiations were progressing. But as it did the last time, Fiji government representatives again declined to be briefed.

FOC sets Forum agenda: The Pacific Islands Forum Official Committee (FOC) meets in Suva next month. Apart from setting the agenda for the leaders meeting in Vanuatu in August, they will also amongst other things discuss the Secretary-General’s right hand man—the position of executive officer, also known as chief of staff. The position had gone to an Australian Ed Vrkic without the position being approved by FOC and advertised. As a result, Fiji did not grant Vrkic a work permit. And he was forced to operate from Sydney. Now he has resigned and it was decided that the position go before FOC in July, so that it can get its blessings and hence how it could be funded. But word on the street is that an Australian volunteer lawyer, is already being eyed for the position.

Still on the Forum…there is a paper on outstanding Forum memberships fees to be discussed at the July FOC meeting. That paper says that as of May 21, 2010, $1.067 million is still outstanding from members. PNG tops the list with $400,762, followed by FSM and then Fiji. But all the Forum member countries also have outstanding membership fees due.

Mobile wars: The gloves are off in Fiji’s mobile phone wars. Australian Matt Davey has come out fighting after settling in as head of the struggling Fiji operations of Digicel. Davey brought his experience from SingTel, Optus, Virgin Mobile in Australia and Globe Telecom in the Philippines to the Fiji fray.
First, he moved Digicel’s Fiji HQ from its strange location on a back road in Nadi, in the west, to the capital Suva. Then he went after the market leading Vodafone and Inkk with combative advertisements and aggressive business chasing. Only time will tell whether Davey can make a dent. The switched-on local executives of Vodafone have given Digicel its toughest competition since entering the Pacific Islands.

Expo update: Shanghai, how are things going there? Well, reports from those Pacific islanders who have returned from the World Expo, say that some stalls are still vacant. One of them belonging to the Cooks. There’s some confusion amongst the Pacific Village organisers and little help was coming from our islands reps based there. Word is that one of the islands reps was interested in the Pacific Village top job, but did not get it, hence the lack of support.

Sir in the firing line: Much finger pointing in the Cook Islands over a failed fuel supply nationalisation scheme. The debacle is popularly known as Toagate because it involved the planned, then aborted, takeover of the Toa Petroleum company. Now a court decision has left Cook Islands taxpayers liable to be paying out millions to Toa. Who to blame? Most fingers seem to be pointing at former Finance Minister Sir Terepai Maoate, widely regarded as the man behind the plan.

Small islands, big voice: The Cook Islands might be one of region’s smaller and less-than-fully-independent outposts. But it seems to be having a big say in the region’s news media. Cook Islands vice president of the regional media body PINA lashed out at his fellow PINA executives during a global conference in Australia. Meanwhile, Cook Islanders also call the shots in two upstart regional media organisations moving in on what was previously PINA’s territory, trips and funding. Next year’s PINA conference, due to be held in the Cooks, could be entertaining.

Diplomatic faux pas: The official programme for last year’s French Embassy-funded Pacific opera Domo ni Karmen featured the above cartoon on its inside back cover. It shows Fiji’s prime minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama throwing a fit on television, which the three men seated at auditions for the opera discuss. “Drama King or what?!” the first states. “Maybe he should audition for the lead role?” says the second. “Ca ga that’s a soprano eh” chips in the third. Carmen, after all, is played by a woman. The pet project of the then outgoing counsellor for culture and cooperation Pascal Dayez Burgeon, the programme carried an opening message from his boss, the ambassador of France to Fiji Michel Monnier. WHISPERS wonders whether their Fijian counterparts were amused.

Date to watch: July 1 is the official reopening of that once famous Apia hotel, the Tusitala. Fiji’s Tanoa Hotel Group took over a decidedly rundown Kitano Tusitala from its former Japanese owners last year. Then Tanoa immediately shut it down. Now after major reconstruction, refurbishment and restaffing they are reopening it as the Tanoa Tusitala. They stress that about the only things remaining the same as the Kitano days are the location (on Beach Road) and number of rooms (95).

Tonga troubles: After all the scandal surrounding the deadly Princess Ashika ferry sinking, the Tongans seem to be taking no chances. They grounded domestic air service operator Chatham Pacific totally after one of its eight-seater planes safely landed at Fua’amotu International Airport despite a collapsed nosewheel. The Kiwis who run Chatham Pacific—and operate to strict New Zealand standards—were reportedly not amused. They were finally able to persuade the Tongans to let their 50-seater Convair planes back into the air after near a week grounded.

Double entendre: The wife of ousted Reserve Bank of Fiji governor Savenaca Narube has opened a women’s fashion boutique called Belisa The Perfect Fit, close to the site of her husband’s former place of employment in Suva. Housed in a peculiar little wooden building with a white picket fence on Pratt St, the new boutique does made-to-measure clothing for the city’s well-heeled women. What’s uncanny is that the building’s previous tenant also offered a made-to-measure service–albeit of a different kind–that is custom made coffins for the dearly departed.

Ruffled feathers? Tongues are wagging in Port Moresby over staffing decisions made by a high-ranking Pacific Islands executive in charge of an Asian conglomerate’s Pacific operations. Among those let go by the Suva-based executive, who flies in and out of the PNG capital on business, are those with strong local business affiliations, making him a very unpopular man indeed. Word on the street is that four senior managers at the company’s Fijian headquarters were recently let go. Could his head be next on the chopping block?

Revolving door: A popular resort in Fiji is recruiting a new general manager, its third in a year and half. WHISPERS hears the two previous expatriate managers were a little too fond of the booze.