Teilweise neu: 2001-10-09 Contents of this issue:
1. Community Study 2. Office Review 3. Internet Quandry ======================================================================== Old contents were: 1. Office Review 2. Internet Quandry October 9th, 2001 1. Community Study: The future of Niue's constitutional relationship with New Zealand takes another major step this month. Vital factors necessary to maintain a living community on the island are to be examined by a specialist team adding to discussions already held by the Joint Consultative Group, set up in February 2000, and the island's current Constitutional Review Committee. The team, which includes a Niuean counterpart, is being funded by the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its hoped the report will be completed before the end of the year. Called the Niue "Living Community" Study it will attempt to reveal Niueans future aspirations and realistic options for the maintenance of a community on the 265 sq km raised coral atoll island which is self governing in free association with New Zealand. Representatives of the 18,000 Niueans living in New Zealand will be encouraged to take part in the study. Officials say community consultation is vital and its hoped the report will contribute to the establishment of a group in Niue representative of all sectors of society to develop a "home grown" model of governance to achieve greater economic and social development. The structure and cost of the island's Legislative Assembly which has 20 members has come under the spotlight in the past 12 months with suggestions that the six common roll members could be dropped. Other suggestions have included a regional local body type government with members elected from constituencies which include three or four villages. The reduction in the island's population to 1750 and a stagnant economy has resulted in New Zealan examining its future constitutional role. New Zealand is obliged under the Constitution Act of 1974 to provide necessary financial and administrative assistance to Niue. A recent poll taken among residents of Niue indicated around 65% opted for maintaining self government in free association with NZ. Around 25% indicated they favoured re-integration with New Zealand. 2. Office Review: The performance of the Niue Tourism Office is to come under scrutiny. The Wellington based NZODA plans to carry out a cost benefit analysis of the office operations and examine the effectiveness of promotional strategies sinc 1998. A consultant is being hired to also report on the returns on expenditure from tourism promotion compared to a selection of other Pacific countries. Since 1998 NZODA has provided almost $NZ9000,000 in funding for the tourism office. The Niue Government has contributed almost $400,000. Part of the review includes recommendations for future NZODA support for tourism development on Niue. This year the Niue Government has budgetted to contribute $187,000 to the tourism office. 3. Internet Quandry: A study conducted in New Caledonia shows that the number of Internet subscriptions is comparatively low because the French territory's population thinks it us "not useful" and "too expensive." According to the study, which was conducted by research firm Louis-Harris, one third of the population in the Greater Nouméa do have a computer, but only 12 per cent are connected to the Internet. Some 25 per cent of the surveyed sample said they did not have a computer because it is "too expensive", another 25 per cent said it is "not useful". Another 20 per cent said they intended to buy one shortly. In the population structure, Metropolitan French nationals were the best equipped: 53 per cent of this category have the Internet at home. Another hindering factor cited by the survey was the cost of telecommunications, which is perceived as too high by 48 per cent of the sampled persons. But this did not seem to be a cause for worry among New Caledonians: only four per cent of the surveyed individuals would like steps to be taken to improve Internet access, three per cent ask for better rates. Connection to the internet is free on Niue - the only country in the world with such a service. E-mail registration and use is also free - users only have to pay the standard local telephone call from their PC to the Internet Users Society servers. (Oceania Flash/SPC) __END__
