NEWSROOM: 10 February - 16 February 2007

New man at the helm for the Pacific Business Trust
16 February 2008 - Source: Pacific Business Trust Press Release

Richard Reid, the new CEO of business support organisation Pacific Business Trust, is excited at the prospect of using his skills and networks to advance the economic prospects of Pacific peoples living in New Zealand.

Mr Reid, who holds an MBA from Massey University, has enjoyed a long and successful business career since training as a mechanic in the early 1970s and progressing through sales to the role of managing director for the New Zealand and Australian operations of Japanese conglomerate, DIC International.

Trust chairperson Pauline Winter says Mr Reid’s leadership qualities and business expertise will stand the trust in good stead as it enters an exciting new stage.

“Mr Reid brings substantial business acumen, international management experience, and leadership to the PBT. We are exceptionally pleased that he has agreed to join the Trust, and we see him as a key driver of a new energy and focus for the organisation, particularly in terms of enhancing key regional stakeholder relationships and projects focused on creating opportunities for Pacific entrepreneurship.”

As managing director of DIC International (NZ) since 1999 and in addition, DIC Australia since 2001, Mr Reid successfully turned both companies around during his tenure, guiding them from mounting losses and increasing debt through to record net profits and increasing assets.
He takes over at the trust from Essendon Tuitupou, who has been acting general manager of the trust since the departure of former CEO Paul Muller in June last year.

About the Pacific Business Trust:

Established 22 years ago with the stated aim of ‘assisting New Zealanders of Pacific descent to start, develop and sustain successful businesses’, the Pacific Business Trust (PBT) has evolved into a diverse organisation offering business support for SMEs, and promoting links between the arts and business.

Event Polynesia to market and promote Toa Samoa RLWC campaign
15 February 2008 - Source: eventpolynesia.com

Samoa Rugby League has announced the appointment of Event Polynesia to market and promote Toa Samoa for the upcoming Rugby League World Cup, to be held in Australia starting in October. The arrangement includes marketing, promotion and fundraising, starting as soon as possible and includes all commercial arrangements from now up to and after the Rugby League World Cup. Details of the partnership are yet to be finalised, but the two parties are keen to work together for the betterment of Toa Samoa’s World Cup Campaign and commercial arrangements going forward.

“We are so delighted to be working with Event Polynesia for the World Cup and going forward" said SRL President Mr Peter Paul.

Toa Samoa RLWC Fundraising will kick-off in mid April with corporate fights pitching rugby league legends against those from other sports. It will also include fights between corporate professionals pitching CEO’s of the public and private sector against one another. This will be the first time for corporate Samoa to enjoy corporate fights, including wining and dining and cheering on a professional partner, while at the same time, contributing to and fundraising for Toa Samoa’s Rugby League World Cup campaign.

“It is such a relief for us to bring in a professional event company to take care of marketing and commercial matters whilst we concentrate on the administration side of things for the World Cup” said SRL Secretary General Fritz Tuiavii.

The local Samoa Rugby League competition kicks-off in early April, with trials set for July and the World Cup squad to be finalised in August. With the high interest and participation of our premier Samoan professional rugby league stars from all over the world, Toa Samoa stands a very positive chance to make the Semi Finals of the World Cup.

Beca to build schools in Federated States of Micronesia
14 February 2008 - Source: Beca Press Release
 
New Zealand engineering and project management consultancy Beca has signed a contract to design and manage the construction of two schools on Yap, an island in the Federated States of Micronesia, located north-east of Papua New Guinea.

Following a global tender, Beca was selected as one of three engineering firms approved to carry out a number of public infrastructure projects in the Federated States of Micronesia over the next four years, including schools, hospitals, roads, and water supply projects.

Beca Project Director Pieter de Zeeuw said New Zealand engineers were well-regarded in the Pacific region because of their practical approach and familiarity with unique local conditions such as the lack of water, poor soil and the climate.

“We’ve been working in the Marshall Islands since 2002, and have had staff based there permanently for over five years. We’ve managed to overcome some of the hurdles such as the lack of local building codes and design standards. We’ve developed construction specifications and details for them using international best practise, and opened up doors for New Zealand building materials exporters as a result,” he said.

Mr de Zeeuw says his company’s track record over five years in the Marshall Islands was a major factor in winning the work in the Federated States of Micronesia. Beca’s projects in the Marshall Islands have included an airport runway, a hospital and ten new schools, Currently the company is designing a major land reclamation for another new school and project managing the rebuilding of the College of the Marshall Islands, the country’s only tertiary institution, which will eventually accommodate 1,000 students.

The work on Yap is being funded via the Federated States of Micronesia’s compact agreement with the United States.

Federated States of Micronesia – key facts
o The Federated States of Micronesia consists of 607 islands extending 2,900 km across the archipelago of the Caroline Islands, east of the Philippines and northeast of Papua New Guinea
o Total land area: 702 sq. km
o Population: 108,000
o The country is a sovereign state in free association with the United States
o The four constituent island groups are Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae
o Economic activity consists primarily of subsistence farming and fishing
o Financial assistance from the US is the primary source of revenue - the nation uses the US dollar as their currency.
o Geographical isolation and a poorly developed infrastructure are major impediments to long-term growth.

About Beca
Established in 1918, Beca is New Zealand’s largest employee-owned professional services company employing nearly 2,000 staff in 13 countries, with projects in more than 63 countries.

Beca works in five key sectors: industry, buildings, infrastructure, environmental and resource management services, and delivers engineering, planning, project management, applied technologies, and valuation services.

Headquartered in Auckland, Beca operates from three market hubs: New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore, and designs and supervises projects with a total value of more than NZ$2.4 billion annually.

Recent projects include terminal expansion at the Wellington and Auckland International Airports, Britomart Transport Centre in Auckland, Westpac Stadium in Wellington, Sky Tower and Casino Centre in Auckland, Manukau Wastewater Treatment Plant in Mangere, Auckland City Hospital, and the 338m Macau Tower.

Beca is ranked 85th in the top 200 international design firms (Source: Engineering News Record 2006). Beca is AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000 certified, and has won more than 50 awards in the last five years alone.

For more information, visit http://www.beca.com .
 

Vanuatu Prime Minister makes first official visit
13 February 2008 - Source: New Zealand Government Press Release
 
Prime Minister Helen Clark has announced that Ham Lini, Prime Minister of Vanuatu, will make an official visit to New Zealand from 17 to 20 February.

"This will be Prime Minister Lini’s first official visit to New Zealand," Helen Clark said.
"His visit provides a useful opportunity to discuss bilateral and regional issues of shared interest.”

"In recent years New Zealand and Vanuatu have enjoyed a regular programme of high-level visits and exchanges. Both countries have been working together to develop a number of initiatives aimed at strengthening the relationship and supporting Vanuatu’s development goals," Helen Clark said.

Vanuatu is New Zealand’s third-largest bilateral aid partner. New Zealand currently provides NZ$15 million to Vanuatu as part of its overseas development assistance programme and this is set to increase in the future.

"A feature of Prime Minister Lini’s visit will be a meeting with Ni-Vanuatu workers and their New Zealand employer at a site near Hastings", Helen Clark said.

More than 300 Ni-Vanuatu workers are currently employed in New Zealand under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, mostly in Central Otago and Hawke’s Bay. These numbers are expected to increase significantly as the New Zealand growing season continues.

The RSE scheme was introduced in May 2007 and it offers workers from Pacific Island countries the opportunity to undertake temporary employment in the horticulture and viticulture sectors in New Zealand.

Prime Minister Lini has led the Vanuatu Government since December 2004. He will be accompanied to New Zealand by the Vanuatu Minister of Youth Development and Sport and senior government officers.
 

POLLYWOOD SIX08 screens in March
12 February 2008 - Source: MIC Toi Rerehiko Press Release
 
MIC Toi Rerehiko are proud to present POLLYWOOD SIX08, curated by Craig Fasi. Continuing on from the previous successful FIVE years of screening Pacific Island Short Film; POLLYWOOD SIX08 is set to please audiences yet again...

POLLYWOOD, a well known advocate of Pacific Island Short film, has produced another fantastic line up of Polynesian theme short films. Encompassing Drama, comedy, experimental and documentary work, POLLYWOOD SIX08 has something for everyone.

Short films directed and written by and featuring Nesian people. Celebrating our cultural identities, stories, thoughts and ideas, Pollywood is the only annual programme of its kind here in New Zealand.

Craig Fasi has organised and curated Pollywood since 2000 while working with the Moving Image Centre, now MIC Toi Rerehiko. "I am constantly humbled by the support the program receives .... six years later the momentum of Pollywood couldnt be any stronger" says Mr Fasi.

Featuring 9 films that make up 80mins of interesting, insightful and educational work. Highlighting an archival piece from the Polynesian Christchurch based organisation, "Pacific Underground" (www.myspace.com/pacificunderground), the film "Nice Jacket" made in 2002 by Mishelle Muagututi'a and Pos Mavaega is an early account of the challenges faced by Pacific Island artists that is still relevant today.

Pollywood, for the first time, is screening an international work by AlexMunoz, (www.fyifilms.org), a Los Angeles based director whose 1 minute film directly relates to the celebration of one's own culture, and reflects on what once was in modern day Guahan.

At each screening, Directors that are available will attend to give a brief overview of their films and answer any questions from the audience.

Featuring:
Nice Jacket
Mishelle Muagututi'a and Pos Mavaega

"Matto Saina ta As Hurao" The Return of our Elder
HuraoAlex Munoz

Laga Meke: The Koro Island Meke Competition
Kate Stevenson

Love Struck
Jane-Anne Akamoeau

Te Okianga O Te VaeruaItiri NgaroTau'olunga
Evanjica Isoa-Pau'u

Taualuga; the last dance
Shigeyuki Kihara

Dream Centre Auckland
Olivia Muliaumasealii

Uso & Sole
Grayham Hall, Neru Aleki and Aleni Tufuga

Venues:
Thursday 6th March at 7.30pm (premiere): MIC Toi Rerehiko / Galatos, Galatos Street, Newton ($5 entry)
Thursday 13th March at 7.30pm: Corbans Estate Art Centre, 426 Great North Road, Henderson (FREE entry)
Saturday 15th March at 4.00pm: The Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland Domain ($5 entry)
Thursday 20th March at 7.30pm: Otara Music and Arts Centre, Corner Newbury St and Bairds Rd, Otara (FREE entry).
 

NZ Readies for big Pacific business expo
11 February 2008 - Source: Islands Business
 
The New Zealand Pacific Business Council (NZPBC)-organised Pacific Expo gets underway on March 5-6 in Auckland. The two-day expo is one of the largest of its kind to be hosted in New Zealand.

To be held at the Trusts Stadium in Henderson in Waitakere City, the expo has been scheduled closely on the heels of Auckland’s hugely popular Pasifika Festival that attracts visitors interested in the Pacific not just from around New Zealand but the larger South Pacific region as well.

“It is our policy to grow two-way trade and in doing so acknowledge there is a special long-standing relationship between New Zealand and the Pacific islands,” says NZPBC chairman Gilbert Ullrich, who is also the managing director of a major aluminium products manufacturing company, Ullrich Aluminium.

The business council was established in 2005 with the objective of promoting and facilitating a two-way trade with the Pacific Islands nations and this is the second time it is putting up the show.

The inaugural expo was held at Manukau City almost two years ago. The primary area of the expo will be devoted to more conventional goods and services, like food and beverage, building products, general merchandise, and services like tourism, accommodation, travel and freight forwarding, banking and investment, education, and a variety of consultancies.

A new creative sector, focusing on the Pacific art and fashion is to be included but with a special emphasis on “commercial outcomes” for exhibitors. Relevant workshops and seminars are scheduled to complement the exhibitions. A fashion show has also been planned.

A highlight of the expo is the presentation from Guam that will outline the many opportunities for Pacific Island businesses over the coming years relating to the US$10 billion worth pf projects coming up in the Northern Pacific territory.

“We have received a very friendly approach from the US Government for our activities,” says Ullrich.

New Zealand’s merchandised trade with Pacific countries—at about $1 billion—is significant and that figure does not account for the consulting and services industry.

“We are hopeful that the merchandise trades figures will be well maintained in the Pacific and even grow. Likewise we would expect the same applies for the Pacific countries and the products that they export into this country.”

Pacific Islands trade to New Zealand has slipped over the years and one of the trade expo’s main objectives is to give it a boost. The NZPBC has been working with New Zealand and Pacific Island companies as well as governments to facilitate better trade and investment by arranging business visits and holding big trade expos, in New Zealand and smaller ones in the countries their delegations visit, among other activities.

But Asian companies have been making steady inroads into the Pacific Islands markets more recently, offering cheaper products. In a lot of markets, New Zealand is unable to compete on the price factor.

New Zealand companies therefore feel a need to emphasise to the Pacific buyers attributes such as product integrity and the country’s clean green image, valuing people capital and providing an optimum price to value proposition.

The country would also like to leverage its long and friendly association with most of the islands nations dating back to the period even before their independence to introduce a new dimension in their trade and business relationships.

Considering this is only the second time the event has been organised, promoters have worked hard to rope in a number of organisations (both private sector and government) from over a dozen Pacific islands countries to participate.

The biggest participating delegations will be from New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, say business council sources. There will also be delegations from the Solomon Islands, the Pitcairn Islands and Kiribati.

New Zealand’s diplomatic relationship with Fiji has been troubled after the coup there in December 2006. Though trade volumes have decreased by some $30 million in the past 12 months, the two countries continue to be important trading partners.

Ullrich is supportive of Fiji’s participation in the expo. He visited Fiji in December and met with its Interim Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, who is reported to have assured him of Fiji’s participation at the expo. Describing it as “natural hub of the Pacific” he said the expo was a great opportunity to reinforce trade links with Fiji. The NZPBC is looking forward to the Fiji pavilion becoming the ‘centre piece’ of the expo, he says.

“There is definitely more interest from New Zealand companies becoming involved with their maturing awareness of the Pacific countries, especially for merchandise exports and opportunities with some of the large developments underway,” says Ullrich.

“Examples are the islands’ flourishing tourist industries, the natural resources and mining industries in Melanesia and New Caledonia, and the huge US$ 15 billion military development in Guam.”

Among the agencies working closely with the business council in opening the New Zealand market for Pacific Islands exporters is PITIC (the New Zealand government funded Pacific Islands Trade and Investment Commission).

PITIC regularly runs programmes where experts in marketing, exporting, merchandising, distribution and logistics familiarise Pacific Islands business persons with doing business in New Zealand.
 

Pacific unemployment rate continues to fall
10 February 2008 - Source: New Zealand Government Press Release
 
The latest Household Labour Force Survey figures out yesterday are a strong endorsement of the Labour-led government's management of the economy, and a great result for Pacific peoples, said Pacific Island Affairs Minister Luamanuvao Winnie Laban.

Statistics for the quarter ending December 2007 show that the overall unemployment rate has fallen to 3.4 per cent, New Zealand's lowest unemployment rate on record.

Labour force participation has increased to 68.8 per cent, the highest rate ever recorded.

The December quarter’s figures also show that Pacific unemployment has fallen from 5.5 per cent in September 2007 to 4.7 per cent for December 2007. This is also a large drop from December 2006 when the quarterly unemployment rate for Pacific peoples was 6.8 per cent.

"In 1999 Pacific unemployment was at 13.6 per cent. These statistics are a wonderful result for Pacific peoples seeking paid work. They are also an endorsement of the Labour-led government's prudent economic management and our initiatives to support people into work, such as Working for Families and Work and Income's new service approach," Laban said.

This week three fono were held in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington to discuss the Pacific Employment Project, which provided an opportunity for interaction between grass root communities and the Ministry of Social Development to develop solutions for the future economic development of Pacific peoples.

"The Labour-led government is serious about investing in our Pacific communities. We know our people are energised, youthful and optimistic about the future. We want to encourage programs that utilise that potential and establish a skilled and versatile Pacific workforce," Laban said.
 

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