Islands Business - Samoa: MANUKAU, SAMOA BUILD BRIDGE ACROSS PACIFIC

Old ties receive shot in the arm

Dev Nadkarni
In September, New Zealand's Manukau city mayor, Sir Barry Curtis, led a trade delegation of councillors, officials and businesspeople, in association with the New Zealand Pacific Business Council (NZPBC) to the Cook Islands and Samoa.

Sir Barry Curtis, mayor of Manukau

The idea of such a delegation is interesting considering it is a cooperative effort between local city government, business and industry and an educational institution to reach out to a neighbouring nation and participate in several aspects of its development. ISLANDS BUSINESS spoke with Curtis in Manukau city.

“The Samoa visit was a rewarding experience,” says Curtis, whose Manukau city has a large Polynesian population and is home to more than 60,000 people of Samoan origin. There are more Cook Islanders living there than in the Cook Islands.

Though Curtis had been conferred the chiefly title of Seiuli by Samoa's head of state Malietoa Tanumafilii II some years ago (a title he shares with the likes of Hollywood star The Rock, who is of Samoan origin), this was his first visit to the country.

Manukau City Council and the government of Samoa signed a memorandum of cooperation that covers activities in a number of areas including development, business, industry and education beneficial to the two parties.

Manukau has similar arrangements with the Cook Islands, signed some five years ago, and the city of Newcastle in Australia. It will sign one with French Polynesia in 2006.

Curtis sees Manukau contributing directly to developmental/environmental issues in Samoa as well as to the education sector. “While tourism development is all very well, measures need to be put in place to safeguard the environment and preserve the natural beauty of the coastline, which indeed is what attracts people to its shores,” he says.

A former town planner, he is concerned about over-development and lack of planning. “There is a need to have more buildings that reflect the culture of the people,” he remarks.

Over the coming years, Manukau city plans to assist Samoa put in place a comprehensive sanitary and drainage system, complete with treatment plants.

“A district plan needs to be developed,” he says, and plans to start working on a discussion paper for the Samoan government. Samoa also needs to put in place policies that require private sector developers of tourism facilities to contribute to the public good-and Manukau could assist with that, he adds.

Another area of cooperation that Manukau is looking at developing is education and human resources as important first steps towards building a thriving economy.

“There is an increasing shortage of skilled people back in the islands. And education is the key to the future,” he says.

Scholarships for study in New Zealand, teacher training programmes and trade-based education are areas in which Manukau plans to contribute. A trained workforce would make possible development of the local industry and business. Joint venture industries that promote import substitution is something that needs to be developed, he says.

Curtis feels that city-to-city relationships work better and faster than nation-to-nation arrangements and complement any initiatives at higher levels. Says New Zealand's High Commissioner to Samoa, John Adank: “Over the last year the NZ/Samoa relationship has been strengthened further through a range of initiatives, including annual ministerial talks, which will provide new opportunities for closer cooperation and collaboration across a range of fronts.”

Accompanying the delegation was Dr Geoffrey Page, chief executive officer of the Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT). The institute has announced scholarships for Samoan students who will study in New Zealand. The Samoa Polytechnic will select the students.

Cooperation between the two institutes is already underway. A staff member of the polytechnic, Douglas Laban, is at MIT completing a programme in panel beating, which he will then take to Samoa and train students there. Similar training-the-trainer programmes are being planned for the future.

“Maritime skills, coastal navigation and seamanship are subjects that we can assist Samoa with,” says Page. MIT has strong programmes in these subjects. The institute is also looking at taking their programmes in agriculture, horticulture, hospitality, and trade-based courses to Samoa. It runs such courses in New Zealand and will customise them for Samoa.

“The delegation was useful in that it raised consciousness among the people and the government that New Zealand was in town and education was very much a part of it,” says Page.

MIT is committed to the region and will look at avenues it can employ to take its programmes to the islands for the benefit of its peoples. “New Zealand is a Pacific nation, not a European one,” he remarks. “We're part of the Pacific in reality-not rhetoric.”

MIT has a close partnering arrangement with the Manukau City Council, where the two organisations work closely in identifying opportunities for mutual growth. It also advises the council on matters of higher education and human resource development.

NZPBC chairman Gilbert Ullrich says several million dollars worth of business deals were bagged by the 14 New Zealand companies that formed part of the delegation.

“There is a huge expansion of business in the Pacific,” he says.

He observes that more Pacific islanders are returning to their homes in the islands. He also sees rapid growth in business opportunities in the islands.

New Zealand's construction businesses are looking at large contracts in the development of hotels, resorts and marinas, says Ullrich. “Refurbishment of existing facilities can be a sizeable business too,” he adds.

Other windows of opportunity are water sports and lifestyle facilities and equipment for resorts such as boats, parasails, houseboats and waterfront apartments.

Joint ventures in the fishing industry and in the areas of import substitution could be viable businesses for overseas investors to consider.

“It's incredible that fish served in Cook Islands restaurants comes all the way from New Zealand,” says Ullrich.

For Auckland industrialists Peter Low and Lucky Senanayake, the Samoa trip resulted in joint venture and distribution arrangements.

Low, who imports hundreds of daily-use products and distributes them across New Zealand and some Pacific islands, was able to find a distributor for some of his products.

His main interest is to export a brand of herbal tea that has been found to block sugar metabolism-something he says is useful in Samoa where lifestyle diseases like diabetes are on the increase.

Senanayake manufactures ready-to-eat foods besides distributing commodities that he imports from Asia and the Middle East.

He has signed up a joint venture deal with a Samoan company to manufacture and export food products as far away as France.

The Manukau delegation earlier visited the Cook Islands and signed a number of projects and business arrangements there as well.

Ben Lee, business development manager, General Cable NZ (GCNZ), said the manufacturer and supplier of cable solutions for energy, communications, data and electronic systems in New Zealand, had expanded its operations to the Pacific Islands, including Samoa where it is a major supplier to Yazaki Samoa (YES) and SamoaTel.

“GCNZ has been a supplier to YES Samoa for over ten years, working closely to meet the stringent engineering and quality standards required for the automotive wiring harness industry for the Australian car assembly industry.

“The company's design engineers work with YES engineers on the introduction of new automotive cable designs required by the car companies to meet requirements of new car models.

“There are also regular visits of GCNZ personnel to YES in Samoa and return visits to the company's plant in Christchurch.” Lee was on one of his periodic visits to Samoa, though not as part of the Manukau delegation.

GCNZ also has a close supply partnership with SamoaTel, supplying copper and fibre cables for the expansion and maintenance of their network throughout Samoa. These help SamoaTel deliver ordinary telephone services and extend its broadband capability throughout the country.

GCNZ holds emergency cable stock on behalf of SamoaTel in New Zealand that can be called on in case of emergency, such as cyclone damage, to help restore services as quickly as possible.