Neu: 2001-09-12 Contents of this issue: 1. Share Offer Extended 2. Trying Hard 3. Goodwill Visit 4. Aid Shakeup 5. Flights Cancelled 6. Rugby Deal 7. Attack Condemned ======================================================================== September 12th, 2001 1. Share Offer Extended: Niue Iinvestments Company set up to sell $100,000worth of shares in a bid to re-open the Niue Hotel in Alofi has extended its share offer. It is continuing to advertise in New Zealand and Niue because the original share package was undersubscribed. The company aims to register as a legal entity in New Zealand. Meanwhile, a group of supporters on Niue is calling for volunteers to work at the hotel in a bid to have it opened by October for the island's 100 year anniversary of political association with New Zealand. Bar staff, kitchenhands and waitresses are being sought to work in the bar and restaurant on a voluntary basis until the hotel gets up and running. 2. Trying Hard: Niue's airline consultants continue to grapple with arranging a direct Auckland-Niue-Auckland jet link. Next month Niue faces negotiating the renewal of a six monthly memorandum o understanding with Royal Tongan Airlines [RTA]. At present there are not a lot of options for the tiny isolated island. RTA flies twice weekly from Tonga to Niue on Tuesdays and Fridays using a Shorts 360 turbo prop.Loadings are good but there is no room on board for air freight and mail. As airlines around the region head into turbulent times the chances of a dedicated service to Niue out of Auckland dwindle. The Niue government is cash strapped and its constitutional partner New Zealand is balking at having to subsidise airline services to the sparsely populated island. Royal Tongan Airlines is unlikely to want to get involved in a leasing deal on jet aircraft.Its past experience on international routes cost RTA a reported $AU5m. Tonga has recently entered an open skies policy with Polynesian Airlines who has already stated its not interested in flying in or out of Niue. Air Rarotonga is taking a cautious approach - it will run charters from Rarotonga to Niue return when required but predicts it could be up to three years before it feels comfortable with flying scheduled services.The airline has previously requested marketing and route development funding totalling around $800,000. Air New Zealand faces massive liquidity problems and has already fobbed off Niue saying the nearest it will get to landing at Niue is Fuamotu Airport in Tonga. That's because of the lack of facilities at Niue if a plane develops a technical fault. Freedom Air is busy increasing its transtasman flights. From November121 out of Auckland it will fly into the NSW city of Newcastle.The company also intends launching a direct service between the Gold Coast and Auckland. The no frills airline has been operating transtasman flights for five years linking the provincial centres of Hamilton, Palmerston North and Dunedin to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Coolangatta. The Nelson based Orient Pacific was originally wooed by Niue but was quickly swept up in expanding NZ internal services following the crash of Qantas New Zealand. It has no jet aircraft. Virgin Blue part of the British cut price airline is uncertain about its entry into the New Zealand market. Air Nauru has apparently been approached by Niue to operate a weekly dedicated service from Auckland to Niue but aviation specialists say the airline faces liquidity problems and wants to fly its way out of trouble on central Pacific routes.. A decade ago the airline flew the route and offered $600 return airfares - half of what they cost today - but loadings were well below commercial viability. Premier Sani Lakatani is reported to have approached China for a soft loan of $2m to crank up a national airline but negotiating such deals take a long time. Tourism investors on Niue say any agreements to new services have to be settled now so that marketing is in place to hit the visitor markets in New Zealand for the start of the May 2002 season. Air services are causing a headache throughout the South Pacific region. The South Pacific Regional Tourism Organisation latest tourism conference in Vanuatu attempted to define the problems. The listed constraints on services included: a lack of frequency within the region, especially small island states, lack of national tourism and aviation policies, lack of co-ordination of regional air services - poor networking among regional carriers and inadequate co-ordination between air carriers and tourism industry - need to improve for off-peak travel packages. The conference recommended that socio-economic impact assessment be made on benefits and downsides of proposed multilateral air services agreement, governments develop policies and guidelines for tourism and aviation and intensify negotiation, co-ordination and facilitation between airlines to improve inter-regional frequency. The conference of tourism heads also suggested closer co-ordination between carriers and tourism providers to improve off-peak travel and that Pacific Island countries should consider subsidising airport related charges, providing incentives to carriers to service their countries. 3. Goodwill Visit: The Peoples Republic of China Ambassador to New Zealand HE Chen Mingming is on a goodwill visit to Niue. It is understood he will be meeting Cabinet to discuss on going assistance to Niue including a soft loan for the formation of a national airline. Premier Sani Lakatani told Radio Australia last week that he was hoping to get a $2m loan from China. Last week the Ambassador from Malaysia made a goodwill visit to Niue. 4. Aid Shakeup: New Zealand is setting up an agency to direct its $NZ250 million overseas aid programmes towards resolving poverty in the Pacific, the New Zealand Herald reported today. It follows a review of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade that damned the way New Zealand diplomats have handled aid programmes, the newspaper said. The Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs, in charge of aid, Matt Robson, wants the funds to be focused on "the unique nature of poverty in the Pacific". Aid money would focus more strongly on eliminating poverty and aim at improving the prospects of the poorest people in the region, he said. Mr Robson was quoted by the New Zealand Herald as saying: "The recent instability and difficulties facing governments in the Pacific have highlighted the need to focus aid more closely on the way aid policies might address the cause of the problems." The review found that foreign aid had been the "poor cousin" of diplomacy and trade promotion. Some ministry staff regarding the aid division as a training ground for diplomats and a dumping ground for non-performers, the New Zealand Herald said. The newspaper added that the report concluded that the aid programme was confused by foreign policy and trade objectives, and that there was too much use of consultants. A new semi-autonomous body would be formed within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to set foreign aid policy and administer aid programmes, the New Zealand Herald said. It would be headed by its own chief executive, hold its own budget and report directly to ministers. Aid agencies yesterday welcomed the change, including Oxfam New Zealand, the newspaper added. "Oxfam supports the separation of accountability for overseas aid from other foreign affairs objectives such as diplomacy and trade," said executive director Terri-Ann Scorer. Christian World Service said the changes would remove obstacles to excellence in overseas aid delivery. But the two unions representing Foreign Affairs staff criticised the review, the New Zealand Herald said. "The impression conveyed in the report is that staff themselves were critical of the overall performance of the programme," said Public Service Association national secretary Richard Wagstaff. "In reality, staff are proud of past efforts and achievements, although supportive of reforms in some key areas." The Dominion newspaper reported decisions on where aid goes are often made for political rather than developmental reasons. The ministry's policy of revolving staff between departments often means managers lack knowledge of the countries they allocate money to and do not know what aid money is used for or whether it benefits recipients, the report said. The Dominion said the review noted "an extremely repressive and unproductive" environment in the ministry and a self-perpetuating culture of arrogance, elitism and paternalism. Ministry chief executive Neil Walter said he believed the review had been "unfairly critical" and overlooked achievements. Many of the problems were a result of under-resourcing, he said. Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke supported the shift away from spending aid money on tertiary scholarships, which were "a form of aid to New Zealand universities and polytechnics". National MP Marie Hasler called the shift short-sighted. Scholarships were integral to the development of recipient countries, she said. - PINA Nius Online. 5. Flights Cancelled: Trans-Pacific air travel has been disrupted as America closed its air space following the massive terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Flights through American airports by Air Pacific and Air New Zealand, the main airlines operating from the South Pacific islands to the USA, were postponed. American Samoa's Pago Pago International Airport was also closed. Flights between the two Samoas by Samoa Air and Polynesian Airlines were suspended. It followed the crashing of hijacked American airliners into buildings in New York and Washington with massive loss of life.(PINA Nius) 6. Rugby Deal: Fiji Rugby Union today announced a formal alliance with the Samoa and Tonga unions to promote Pacific Islands rugby. It will cover: - the creation of a joint touring team selected from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga; - the implementation of development programmes; - and coordination between the unions on areas of joint concern. The alliance is captured in a memorandum of understanding drafted last month that has subsequently been approved by the boards of both the Samoa and Tonga unions. "There are many areas of joint interest among the top three rugby nations in the Pacific and this is an excellent initiative that can only strengthen the way in which Pacific rugby is developed," said Simon Swanson, of the Fiji Rugby Union. "We have common issues with the migration overseas of key rugby talent, a limited resource base with which to retain our players and all three of us have suffered from playing at the highest levels but still being on the margins of international rugby administration. At the end of the day there are only four countries of the world where rugby is the number one sport and three of those are Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. If we work together we can achieve a lot more than working against each other," said Swanson.(PINA Nius). 1. Attack Condemned: The Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Noel Levi, has strongly condemned the airborne terrorist attacks in the United States which left many dead and injured in New York, Washington and Shanksville. "The Secretariat extends its sympathy to the United States Government and the people of the United States. "We pray for the countless families whose loved ones were killed or injured in these terrible tragedies," Mr Levi said. "We pray they find solace in God 's comfort, and in the happier memories they once shared with their parents or children. "This is an attack on families and the community of nations. "We look to the United States and the international community to urgently find more effective ways of combating international terrorism. We are all affected in some way, and we can all help in some way. "At this very difficult time, our thoughts are with those whose lives have been forever changed by these terrible events," Mr Levi said. (Forum Secretariat). __END__
