From NASFUND Newsletter
Doing the talk, doing the walk
This month NASFUND will show case its property development programme which is the largest of any locally owned company in Papua New Guinea. Importantly we provide an insight into our investment thinking and how so far we have stayed ahead of the property curve.
Higher interest rates, with even further rate rises looming in a backdrop of continued international uncertainty can give concern to any one with an interest in property. We explain to members in this edition why the word caution remains the most important advice anyone can give as the country enters a significant drop in international tax receipts and revenues brought on by the downturn in commodity prices. Like equities, property has shown to be a strong long tern investment but in the short term, risks present them selves and at the end of the day, timing is a crucial element in getting the return equation right.
Construction that is relevant for the new Century
Much of the countries property stock is 35 to 40 years old. This stock is very quickly diminishing in value due to it being more assessed as land value, with the only meaningful course of action being demolition and rebuild. The market for old commercial buildings outside an historical context or for the intention of demolition and rebuild has diminished and this is set to continue as new stock hits the market place.
Recent attempts by some institutions to renovate existing aging stock is really about throwing good money up against the wall or as one property expert stated, “trying to dress up mutton as lamb.” The NASFUND approach is about ensuring that our property stock is new and relevant for this century with lifts, air-conditioning, along with smart amenities at the forefront of any new build.
NASFUND’s Eight and Nine-Mile Estates, Port Moresby – a legacy
The other exciting NASFUND led development has been in the way of residential housing. NASFUND has with its partners Consap Developers kick-started, residential housing estate development in Port Moresby in 2007. Phase one, delivered 32 houses at Eight-Mile which have all been sold and another 62 houses at Nine Mile, currently pre selling or in the process of being sold. NASFUND is pleased that other institutions are following our lead. Housing is a national issue and we are please to have led the way in meeting this challenge.
NASFUND will launch a stage three at Eight-Mile, later this year covering initially another 30 houses. More details will be forth coming.
NASFUND a job creator!
Finally, governments around the world are implementing stimulus packages to boost demand within their failing economies. The PNG government has also recently begun discussing its own stimulus package. NASFUND added the jobs that it has created with its construction program, with over 1, 000 direct jobs and through a multiplier effect of indirect job creation; we are looking at a stimulus of 3, 000 local jobs. Not bad for your No.1 Super Fund!
NASFUND has shared the development work among five construction companies. It is imperative that we have a vibrant construction industry and the best way to do it is to spread the work among the best.
Managing risk
The economic crisis with its increasing volatility means that more importantly than for a long time, much more work is required by investment managers, financers and superannuation funds on risk management. NASFUND has for many years been well disciplined when it comes to risk management. Every year, the NASFUND Board reviews risk; what variables affect the portfolio and what measures are in place to minimise risk. This year is no exception with the 2009- 2010 risk management draft finalised in mid March for board review. The 43 page document is a comprehensive review of portfolio risk and importantly with a plan to manage and minimise risk within your Fund over 2009 and beyond.
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Papua New Guinea property outlook 2009
From NASFUND Newsletter
In the exuberance that naturally comes with a burgeoning
· Lower commodity prices translating into lower government receipts;
· Less certainty as to the timing of the gas project;
· Lower occupancy rates in major hotels; and
· A slight softening in property prices at the upper end.
Similarly inflationary pressures are evident and the likelihood of higher interest rates is also becoming more of a certainty over the next six months. The dream run of a 6% growth rate in
So what implications does this have for property? Currently under construction (estimates) in
Hotels and serviced apartments
· A minimum of 92 rooms being added as serviced apartments (now in a market where hotels are finding occupancy rates falling).
· An additional 140 hotel rooms by Steamships Limited.
· An additional 290 hotel rooms will be added on the completion of
· A minimum of 100 hotel rooms at Four-Mile.
· An additional 60 hotel rooms by Airways Hotel Limited.
· Additional hotel room’s ear marked for the Holiday Inn.
Commercial
There is currently approximately 18,300 square metres under construction in
Additionally on the drawing board there is a further 43,000 square metres in the Town, Gordons, Waigani drive area. To give you an idea of size, we are looking at the equivalent of another four
Apartments
Apartment (non-serviced) estimates are close to another 140 coming on stream in the next few years.
Clearly we have an enormous construction boom at present which is contributing to the strong performance of the PNG economy but built on a premise that the economy will absorb this new construction. Without the gas project, the medium term prognosis is that the economy will not absorb this anticipated supply. With firming interest rates some of these projects will be put on hold or shelved. Effectively we will also see higher vacancy rates and a corresponding cap on rents.
The implications from a worst case scenario are:
- Those companies that began commercial construction early will be the winners. It’s now a case of “first in best dressed”. Their projects will be leased before a serious downturn in property should occur and be able to lock in some good rents. We will also see tenants migrating from older buildings to newer construction. Old commercial stock in town even with attempts to renovate will fail to keep tenants as preferences shift to newer, cleaner and better air-conditioned offices. Similarly, traffic congestion in
- The effects of the
- Accommodation will behave similarly but within a longer time frame due to the current construction lag. While we anticipate that the high Kina/AUD exchange rates will most likely fall over the coming year, it is important to note that the high Kina value is already causing dislocation in the accommodation market for AID advisers and consultants;
- Hotel and serviced accommodation outlook will significantly face downward price pressure due to oversupply in the medium term exacerbated by the fall in international business travel and need for short term corporate stays. Further as more apartments are constructed, many long term “hotel dwellers” will shift from hotel accommodation to apartment living. Already there is anecdotal evidence that demand for hotel accommodation is weakening;
- The current economic crisis internationally and the issues as raised will also be reflected in the thinking of lenders. Banks and other institutions are already assessing these risks and obviously lending to some construction projects may not eventuate. Higher interest rates also may negate project returns.
The NASFUND property strategy has been as follows:
Immediate commercial focus
NASFUND has concentrated on CBD land and commercial construction. The focus as discussed is driven by the fact that there has been no major commercial construction since
NASFUND land bank strategy
Land holdings also feature strongly in the plan. NASFUND has effectively land banked parts of
With the long term economic scenario we are facing, it is imperative that NASFUND took centre stage on securing a large footprint in the CBD. Any major development will mean local participation and ensure equity benefits are also enjoyed by PNG workers through their superannuation.Land banking is important for the future as it presents a low cost foothold on future development. To that end NASFUND has secured a 50% interest in the undeveloped land adjacent to BSP head office, land on, the potential to redevelop the Burns Philp site and 4,000 square metre of prime residential land at the top of Lawes road.
While we do not want to throw a too negative picture on the coming three to five years, we all need to take a realistic and cautionary approach on what potential downsides exist if the international economic crisis with its flow on effects to
A senior retired head of banking who had lived through a number of these cycles in PNG said to us once – “just remember, the country like resource markets tends to go through booms and busts - while it is exciting during the booms, the busts tend to bring you down to earth quickly.”
We remember nearly 10 years ago with a brand new building called
World Press Freedom Day 2009: Dialogue, mutual understanding and reconciliation
The way the media influences thought and action and its capacity to foster dialogue, understanding and reconciliation will be the focus of discussions at a UNESCO conference marking World Press Freedom Day 2009, to be held in
In his message for World Press Freedom Day 2009, the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, stressed: “We must strengthen our efforts to build a media that is critical of inherited assumptions yet tolerant of alternative perspectives; a media that brings competing narratives into a shared story of interdependence; a media that responds to diversity through dialogue.”
Based on the premise that only a free media will innately contribute to the dialogue and understanding across divides, the two-day programme will be divided into four sessions, during which media professionals from around the world will discuss:
§ The capacity of the media for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding;
§ The need to establish ethical and professional standards in order to build models of accountability as well as effective self regulation for journalists;
§ What specific place for media in promoting interreligious dialogue and mutual understanding?
§ Media and enhancing dialogue as a tool for empowering citizens.
The conference has been organised under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, consort of His Highness the Emir of Qatar Shiekh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani.
H.E. Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, Chairman of the Board,
South-African journalist Allister Sparks, the author of several critically-acclaimed books on his country’s transition from apartheid including, most recently, Beyond the Miracle: Inside the New South Africa, will present the keynote speech.
During the conference, Mr Matsuura will present the 2009 World Press Freedom Prize, awarded posthumously to murdered Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge. Mr Wickrematunge’s widow, Sonali Wickrematunge, will accept the prize, which is supported by the Ottaway and Cano foundations and JP/Politiken Newspaper LTD
Dictator's plea to Kevin Rudd: let's talk to help restore Fijian democracy
EXCLUSIVE: Graham Davis, Suva | May 01, 2009
Article from: The Australian
FIJI'S military leader, Frank Bainimarama, has proposed a summit meeting with Australia and New Zealand to try to resolve the impasse over his refusal to hold elections for another five years.
"It is not going to happen. There will be no elections until September 2014," he said.
Commodore Bainimarama said an election this year would restore the "racist" government of former prime minister Laisenia Qarase, whom he deposed at gunpoint in 2006.
"Qarase is finished. He will only return over my dead body," he insisted. But the Fijian Prime Minister wants to map out a way forward to rebuild Fiji's shattered relationship with its traditional partners and has challenged the Australian and New Zealand leaders to confront him in person.
"I would like to see Kevin Rudd and John Key face to face so I can explain things clearly to them about the changes we need to bring about," Commodore Bainimarama said.
Stressing that the summit should be "immediate", the Fijian leader expressed frustration about the attitude of Australia and New Zealand to his attempts to purge Fiji of racism and undertake electoral reform before elections in 2014.
"That's the sad part about it. I don't think the international community much appreciates what's happening here.
"They need to come and find out," he said.
Commodore Bainimarama was speaking after Fiji suffered fresh political upheaval early last month, when the Fiji constitution was abrogated, a clampdown launched on dissent and the media, and President Josefa Iloilo said elections would be delayed until September 2014.
Fiji faces becoming the first member to be suspended from the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Australian, Commodore Bainimarama was both conciliatory and pugnacious.
He predicted that the forum would baulk at suspending Fiji in spite of sustained lobbying from Australia and New Zealand.
He announced that the month-long state of emergency imposed in Fiji would be extended, including media restrictions.
And he repeated allegations that Australia was spying on Fiji and tapping his telephones.
He revealed that his long-term plans to produce a multi-racial democracy included the restoration of the Queen as Fiji's head of state.
On his summit proposal, Commodore Bainimarama called on Canberra and Wellington to drop their insistence on an election in Fiji this year.
"That will only ensure the return of the racist government I overthrew in 2006. We need to get rid of racism in the next five years and then have elections that people recognise will bring about true democracy in Fiji."
Commodore Bainimarama said he was prepared to give the Australian and New Zealand leaders a "cast-iron guarantee" that elections would be held in 2014, but not before.
Anticipating their response that he had broken a pledge to hold elections this year, Commodore Bainimarama denied that it was ever a formal undertaking.
"The Tongan Prime Minister, who was chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum, came to me for an informal chat and said 'Look, there's a lot of pressure on us and on you to set a date for elections. Why don't you come up with 2009?' So I said, 'If we want to change that, we can talk about it later on'. I thought it was something we could discuss, a possibility, not something set in stone," Commodore Bainimarama insisted.
The military chief said he did not believe the forum would proceed with its threat to suspend Fiji.
"No one has ever been suspended from the forum, and I just can't see it happening. It's beyond its mandate to suspend a member nation. In fact, if it was up to me, we would have removed Australia and New Zealand because they're putting undue pressure on the Pacific islands and that's not how we operate in the Pacific," Commodore Bainimarama said.
The region's elder statesman, Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Michael Somare, warned on Tuesday that he was running out of patience with Commodore Bainimarama's regime, and the forum had no choice but to suspend Fiji if it failed to meet today's deadline.
But the Fijian leader said Sir Michael "would be thinking twice" about telling member countries of the need to do so.
"Sir Michael Somare and Fiji have a very wonderful, strong relationship going back to the days when he and Ratu Mara (the founder of modern Fiji) were friends. That relationship will remain," he said.
Commodore Bainimarama appealed to his fellow island leaders not to be swayed by Australia and New Zealand.
"Fiji was one of the initiators of the forum. Why would they want to suspend Fiji? Is there killing on the roadside? Why suspension, just because we don't go along with what the Australians and the Kiwis want?"
He also asked his fellow leaders to consider, in their deliberations, supportive comments last week to a US congressional hearing by a Samoan member of the congress, Eni Faleomavaega.
He told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Australia and New Zealand were making "nasty accusations" against Fiji and "acting with a heavy hand" about a "situation that is more complex than it appears".
Ms Clinton promised to examine Mr Faleomavaega's complaints and acknowledged Australia and New Zealand as the source of much of the US's information about Fiji.
"She should listen to his advice," Commodore Bainimarama said, expressing his hope for a change in US policy.
"There's someone who understands what's happening in Fiji. At least she will have somebody else besides Australia and New Zealand to listen to."
Commodore Bainimarama also said he was unfazed by threats to move the forum secretariat from Suva, Fiji's capital.
"There's no need to move the forum headquarters, but I guess if they come to that decision, we'll assist them. I don't think it's going to happen."
In his interview with The Australian, the military chief also announced that Fiji's month-long state of emergency, due to expire on May 10, would be extended.
The clampdown has seen the media muzzled and a prominent indigenous nationalist, Iliesa Duvuloco, detained for allegedly distributing pamphlets calling for a military uprising.
"We want this calm to continue for a while. The emergency regulations were brought in entirely for media censorship to ensure calm. I'm very worried about people like Duvuloco inciting people to rise up against the military and the Government of the day," Commodore Bainimarama said.
He repeated allegations previously made by his Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, that Australia has been spying on Fiji.
He said he had personally confronted Foreign Minister Stephen Smith with evidence that his telephone calls had been tapped in breach of Fiji's laws.
"We had to caution Stephen Smith about spying on us, that this was illegal in Fiji, and in that meeting he didn't say anything. He didn't deny or admit it, but I took that as confirmation, bugging our phones and listening to our conversations."
But the military chief described it as an irritant, and said it had not made him more cautious about what he said on the phone.
"I really don't give a damn what they hear," he said.
The Fijian leader outlined some of his plans, including closer ties with China and India, which have replaced Australia and New Zealand as Fiji's confidants and evident means of support.
Confirming that Chinese aid to Fiji had risen dramatically, he said: "Yes, the Chinese are giving us money. We have a wonderful relationship with China and we're trying to build on that. They're very sympathetic and understand what's happening here, that we need to do things our own way."
Commodore Bainimarama said his main task in the next five years before an election was to promote the notion of racial equality over the indigenous supremacist agenda of the government he deposed.
Pointing to recent high-level Indo-Fijian appointments, including the governor of the Reserve Bank, Sada Reddy - who replaced an indigenous Fijian - the military chief said: "My vision for Fiji is one that is free of racism. That's the biggest problem we've had in the last 20 years and it needs to be taken out.
"It's the lies that are being fed to indigenous Fijians that's causing this. We need to get rid of Qarase and everything associated with the 2000 coup and begin entirely on a new path."
The military chief envisaged that when democracy was eventually restored in five years, Fiji would ask the Queen to resume her position as head of state. The country declared itself a republic during the first coups of 1987. "I'm still loyal to the Queen - many people in Fiji are," he said, acknowledging her photograph above his desk. "One of the things I'd like to do is see her become Queen of Fiji again."
Set a date for World Environment Day on June 5
World Environment Day (WED) was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.
Commemorated yearly on June 5, WED is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The day's agenda is to:
- Give a human face to environmental issues;
- Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development;
- Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues;
- Advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.
The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'.
It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in
Breaking news! Fiji military regime suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum
The Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum and Premier of Niue, the Hon. Toke Talagi MP, has announced that the military regime of
“It is with considerable sorrow and disappointment that I confirm the suspension of the current military regime in the Republic of the
Hon. Talagi added: “This difficult decision, agreed unanimously between all Forum leaders at our Retreat in Port Moresby on 27 January 2009, responds to Commodore Bainimarama’s failure to address constructively by 1 May 2009 the expectations of Forum Leaders to return Fiji to democratic governance in an acceptable time-frame, in addition to responding to a range of other concerns (the Port Moresby Leaders’ Retreat Decisions are attached). It is also particularly timely given the recent disturbing deterioration of the political, legal and human rights situation in
“These measures respond directly to the confirmation by the military regime in
The Forum Chair confirmed: “This decision does not amount to the expulsion of
“A regime which displays such a total disregard for basic human rights, democracy and freedom has no place in the Pacific Islands Forum. Nevertheless, we look forward with great hope to
The Leaders’ decision involves implementation of two specific targeted measures, taken in accordance with the 2000 Biketawa Declaration. The first involves suspension of participation by the leader, ministers and officials of
Friday, May 01, 2009
2009 National Education Conference launched at University of Goroka
A National Education Conference planned for September this year was launched last Friday April 24, 2009 at the
The conference will be jointly hosted by the
It is planned to be held at the
Speaking at the launching the Dean of the Education Faculty at UOG Dr Kapa Kelep-Malpo informed those who gathered for the event that the conference was planned to address the current issues faced by education practitioners, policy makers and other stakeholders including parents.
She stressed the importance of partnership in education from all sectors of the community.
She also urged all to work collectively to equip young Papua New Guineans with proper education.
Present at the launching were members of the University Council and Dr Michael Tapo representing the National Department of Education.
There were also representatives from the Provincial Division of Education, and schools from both elementary and secondary levels.
Business houses and non-government organisations including churches from the
According to the organisers, the theme of the conference is ‘Education, Innovation and Standards’.
The sub-themes include managing education reform policy and promoting access through distance and flexible learning.
Innovative and successful partnership in education and the responsibilities of the government and non government organisations in addressing common societal issues are the other sub-themes of the conference.
Most speakers at the launching agreed that the conference was timely to address the current concerns relating to the national education reform.
They expressed that the conference would be an appropriate forum for stakeholders to discuss the possible ways education could be directed to cater for the county’s growing population and its national, regional and global development plans.
The organising committee extends its invitation to scholars, education practitioners, business organisations and the communities at large to attend the conference.
It is calling for papers from within and abroad for presentation at the conference. Abstracts should be submitted by May 31, and full papers by August 28.
More information on the conference can be obtained from Dr Kapa Kelep-Malpo, Dean and Chairperson of the Planning Committee through phone (675) 731 1741 and email malpok@uog.ac.pg .
Information can also be obtained form Associate Professor Api Maha, Chairperson of the Editorial Committee through phone (675) 731 808 and email mahaa@uog.ac.pg .
All postal correspondence can be sent to:
For further information please contact:
Ms Kate Gunn
Public Relations & Marketing Officer
The
Ph: (675) 7311 877
Fax: (675) 732 1914
Email: gunnk@uog.ac.pg
Call for collectiveness to address climate change
By SENIORL ANZU
Climate change and its impacts on PNG should be addresses effectively and collectively, says a senior scientist with the National Agricultural Research Institute, Dr Akkinapally Ramakrishna.
He said the phenomenon of climate change was worldwide and everyone should get to know circumstances surrounding the issue and join our hands to respond to it.
Dr Ramakrishna said this in light of the coming ‘Agricultural Innovations Show’ NARI will stage next Tuesday at Bubia near Lae, which will focus on climate change, its impacts on agriculture and suggestions on how PNG can address it.
The theme of the show is ‘Adapting PNG Agriculture to Climate Change’.
“The idea behind the show is to sensitise climate change and make everyone, including farmers, organisations, politicians, bureaucrats, policy makers, scientists, and the general public who have interest and wish to know the issue become aware of this fact”, Dr Ramakrishna said.
“Climate change is going to affect the rural and vulnerable communities and they need to know the issue and work around it collectively.
“PNG needs to think seriously and have a plan in place.”
Dr Ramakrishna said in order to increase raising the awareness, NARI had invited sister institutions and organisations from the public and private sectors to come together during the show for this noble cause.
He said during the agricultural innovations show, NARI would exhibit and show awareness materials on climate change relating to agriculture and research initiatives currently undertaken by the institute to address some aspects of the climate change problem.
From some 60-plus organisations invited, 70-80% of them have responded favorably and Dr Ramakrishna said more request were flowing in.
He said this would be another big occasion for information sharing and knowledge sharing.
Those confirmed to participate include the Coffee Industry Corporation, Fresh Produce Development Agency, National Agriculture Development Plan, New Britain Palm Oil Limited, Ramu Agri-Industries, PNG University of Technology,
World No Tobacco Day
On May 31 each year, the World Health Organisation celebrates World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce consumption.
Tobacco use is the second cause of death globally and is currently responsible for killing one in 10 adults worldwide.
The WHO has "Tobacco Health Warnings" as the theme for this year’s World No Tobacco Day.
Tobacco health warnings appear on packs of cigarettes and are among the strongest defences against the global epidemic of tobacco.
WHO particularly approves of tobacco health warnings that contain both pictures and words because they are the most effective at convincing people to quit. Such pictorial warnings appear in more than a dozen countries.
On World No Tobacco Day 2009, and throughout the following year, WHO will encourage governments to adopt tobacco health warnings that meet all the criteria for maximal effectiveness, including that they cover more than half of the pack, appear on both the front and back of the pack and contain pictures.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control obligates its more than 160 countries parties to require "health warnings describing the harmful effects of tobacco use" on packs of tobacco and their outside packaging and recommends that the warnings contain pictures. WHO works through its Tobacco Free Initiative department to help the parties to meet their obligation, providing technical and other assistance.
As WHO Director General Margaret Chan says, "We hold in our hands the solution to the global tobacco epidemic that threatens the lives of one billion men, women and children during this century."
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day: Protecting children in cyberspace
The purpose of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide.
Sunday May 17 marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union.
This year, to mark World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, ITU Council adopted the theme: Protecting children in cyberspace.
The theme of this year’s WTISD aims at ensuring that children can safely access the Internet and its valuable resources without fear of falling prey to unscrupulous predators in cyberspace.
ITU calls upon all stakeholders (policy makers, regulators, operators and industry) to promote the adoption of policies and strategies that will protect children in cyberspace and promote their safe access to online resources.
International Day of the Family
May 15 is celebrated as the International Day of the Family. This day highlights the importance of families. It aims at fostering equality, bringing about a fuller sharing of domestic responsibilities and employment opportunities. The programmes undertaken to commemorate the day, work towards supporting families in the discharge of their functions. They tend to promote the inherent strengths of families, including their great capacity of self-reliance, and stimulate self-sustaining activities.
Family constitutes the basic unit of society. Hence, the widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to families so that they fully assume their responsibilities within the community to the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration on Social Progress and Developments and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women.
The biological, emotional and economic needs are the foundation of a family. It grows out of biological needs, particularly those of the expectant mother and the infant child, who cannot support and live by themselves.
Every association of people; it be a state, a nation, or a tribe - has its own distinctive culture, its modes of living and thought, which are developed as a response to the peculiar circumstances of the environment, natural and ideological. Family is the agency through which the impressionable rising generation is made familiar with such traditions. It teaches the individual what situations to anticipate, how to behave and what behaviour to expect, by giving one the gifts of language and dress which integrate within one’s cultural ethos. It facilitates adjustment to people and groups outside the family circle.
Family plays an important role in transmission of the cultural traditions from one generation to another. It acts as an educative unit and a socio-cultural agency. The importance of this aspect lies in the fact that children all over the world get their earliest instruction in the family beginning with language.
Fish farming takes off at Golden Pine, Bulolo
Caption: Frank Vidinamo of NARI preparing a cage for the fish culturing project in
By FRANK VIDINAMO
Inland aquaculture or fish farming is one of the fastest-growing industries in
Currently, the National Agriculture Research Institute, through its livestock research programme, is promoting inland aquaculture in which scientists are involved in feed formulation, fish farming systems, information and outreach activities and the promotion of cage culture system.
In February 2009, a pilot cage culture project was established in
Preliminary observations were that within two months the GIFT tilapia showed remarkable growth from 10g to 100g live weight.
At this growth rate, fish are expected to reach 200g or table size ready for sale or consumption by the end of June this year.
According to Riggo Nangan, a local who is in charge of the project, the whole community of Golden Pine, Vidipos and Baiyune areas could benefit from this trial.
At the moment there are 32 existing natural lakes in the area and fish farming using cage culture system has a huge potential if the community can adopt this new technology.
He said with the damage of
“Therefore, people are overfishing the existing lakes to supplement their diet, which is putting a lot of stress on the number of native fish species found in the lakes,” Mr Nangan said.
“The project is timely and relevant and government authorities, both at the local and national level, should look into this project and help the people in the area to start farming fish using cage culture system in the numerous natural lakes in the areas as a way to improve food and nutrition security.
“Other livestock species such as ducks, sheep and goats can as well be tested and promoted to improve supply of food protein in the area with technical assistance from NARI.”
Goat milking to go on show
Caption: Dr Workneh Ayalew of NARI demonstrating the goat milking technology during a farmers’ field day in the highlands recently
By SENIORL ANZU
Goat milking will be a major attraction at Bubia next Tuesday when National Agriculture Research Institute stages the 2009 Agricultural Innovations Show.
Farmers and visitors at this annual event will see live demonstrations performed by scientists on extracting fresh milk from goats.
Research programme leader of the NARI livestock programme Dr Workneh Ayalew said his staff at Labu near Lae were preparing to show farmers the goat milking technologies.
“A highlight of our displays will be the use and promotion of goats for milk production and this will be demonstrated during the annual event,” he said.
“Goats are good milk producers, which farmers should look after to obtain fresh milk. But for them to give good milk, they need to be managed and trained properly.”
Other displays and demonstrations on livestock will be on the use of local feeds such as sweet potato and cassava for making broiler rations; the sweet potato silage feeding system for pigs; and the use of small livestock chicken, ducks, goats, sheep, rabbits, inland fisheries) to diversify sources of quality food and sources of income.
Dr Ayalew added that the livestock programme would also sell small animals at the show including breeding stock of ducks, rabbits, sheep and goats and poultry such as broiler chicken and ducks.
Apart from feeding their kids, goats can produce good milk for human consumption. These ruminants need proper care and training in order to give good fresh milk.
Regular milking exercise is also necessary, and milking can be done once or twice a day. After training for a week or two, they will continue to produce up to half a litre.
Goats also need to be fed well; not only with green feed but some concentrates, and they need to be kept in good condition.
The agricultural innovations show will be staged for the third consecutive year.
It is an ‘information exchange and knowledge sharing’ event in which partner and collaborating organisations in agricultural and rural development will be invited to display and exhibit their innovations and improved technologies and interact with farmers and the general public.
The theme of this year is ‘Adapting PNG Agriculture to Climate Change’.
More from Graham Davis
Graham Davis May 01, 2009
IT'S the eve of Frank Bainimarama's 55th birthday and he's in a jovial mood as we stroll the manicured path to the officers' mess at Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks. Tomorrow at dawn, his troops will march to his home bearing cake and champagne, and the army band will play the local version of the traditional birthday song that always includes the extra stanza, "happy long life to you!" Not everyone in Fiji will be joining in.
The military commander turned prime minister has just shown me the bullet holes that riddle the timber panels of his office in an adjacent building that came under attack by rebel soldiers during the mutiny of 2000.
"We leave it unrepaired to remind us just how close we came to disaster. It was only because I was at lunch in the mess that I survived," Bainimarama says.
"When we realised we were under attack, my security detail rushed me through the back door and down the hill to safety. We were dodging bullets and rocket-propelled grenades. Three loyal soldiers died that day, and we must never forget."
Bainimarama readily concedes that five captured rebels were beaten to death, but denies reports that one had his penis cut off, another his tongue ripped out. Any mention of extrajudicial killings is curtly dismissed. "These people came to kill us. What do you expect, a kiss on both cheeks?"
As we approach the mess, a uniformed non-commissioned officer springs to attention and salutes. The commander is in mufti: tailored Fijian sulu (a wrap skirt) topped with a green floral shirt. To my astonishment, he raises his right hand in a Nazi salute. "Heil Hitler!" he exclaims. "Isn't that what dictators are supposed to do?" His entourage explodes in mirth, the shrill Fijian kaila that's an infectious mix of cackle and laugh. Later, he repeats the joke with some goosesteps thrown in, skirt akimbo, brown legs flashing.
It dawns on me that Bainimarama is being ironic, making light of the ugly stereotype into which he feels he has been unfairly cast.
He dislikes the term dictator, he tells me, because he doesn't see himself as such, and is irritated when I persist with the description.
"I am not a dictator. I'm the prime minister of this country and there's a president. We may not have a constitution right now but we're bringing the law back by decrees. I can't go and dictate to a family what they have for lunch today. I wish I could, so I can join them for lunch but no, my word is not the word."
OK, what about "virtual dictator", the term used by Kevin Rudd? "No. The President (Josefa Iloilo) is head of state and commander-in-chief of the military, and he makes decisions for himself and for the Government. He tells me what to do. He has advisers and I'm one of them," Bainimarama insists. Mmmh.
Yes, it was the octogenarian high chief Iloilo who formally abrogated the 1997 constitution, dismissed the judiciary and reinstalled Bainimarama's regime when three Australian judges declared it illegal on appeal.
Most Fiji citizens believe that whatever Frank wants in the "new order" Iloilo declared, Frank gets.
Not so, says the commander, in comments indicating that the new order's five-year election plan may not have been his preferred option: "The President wants me to hold elections in five years and that will happen. But it's the shortest five years in Fiji's history because we need a lot longer than that to change the racial attitudes of our people and establish true democracy."
Bainimarama's immediate focus has been to stabilise the country in the wake of the dramatic events and head off civil unrest. The calm, even relaxed, air in Suva suggests he's succeeding, with no overt opposition and no armed troops on the streets as in other times of national crisis through the years.
A month-long state of emergency has muzzled Fiji's boisterous media and the regime has rounded up several people identified with indigenous extremism, including Iliesa Duvuloco, one of the main figures behind George Speight's 2000 coup. Bainimarama accuses him of distributing leaflets trying to incite an indigenous uprising against the military.
The emergency regulations are due to expire on May 10 but the military chief tells me they'll be extended. "We want this calm to continue for a while and we need media censorship to ensure that," he says.
That means the censors who've taken up residence in local newsrooms will continue to ban stories the regime regards as negative or likely to inflame.
Rather than publish government handouts, some outlets such as the venerable Fiji Times, sister paper of The Australian, have chosen to run no political coverage at all. "That's the way it should happen in Fiji, rugby back on the front page," crows Bainimarama. It's not only "inciteful" messages he worries about, but "irresponsible reporting. That's something we really don't need right now."
As Bainimarama tells it, he and the military are righteous crusaders for all Fiji citizens, as opposed to an agenda of indigenous supremacy masquerading as democracy practised by his opponents and unthinkingly supported by Australia and New Zealand.
"I've tried to explain to Australia and NZ the real story of what's happening here and no one seems to listen," he says. So Bainimarama is embarking on a new tack, seeking a three-way summit with the leaders of both countries to set the record straight and try to rebuild the shattered relationship.
"I would like to see Kevin Rudd and (NZ Prime Minister) John Key face to face immediately so I can explain things clearly about the changes we need to bring about."
Bainimarama says he's willing to give both leaders a "cast-iron guarantee" that elections will be held in 2014 but not before. He's hoping the regional heavyweights may be in a mood to compromise after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton undertook to listen to complaints from a Samoan congressman that Australia and NZ were being "nasty" about Fiji and that its position was more complex than they were portraying. The alternative to a summit, Bainimarama says, is to continue the diplomatic stand-off in which China and India have replaced Australia and NZ as Fiji's closest confidants and sources of aid.
The morning I visit the PM's office, I'm ushered briefly into back-to-back meetings between Bainimarama and Chinese ambassador Han Zhiqiang and Indian high commissioner Prabhakara Jha, both of whom clearly have warm personal relationships with the dictator. In stark contrast, Bainimarama tells me, neither Australian high commissioner James Batley nor his NZ counterpart have been prepared to meet him since the 2006 coup. However principled that may seem from Canberra and Wellington, it's rendering both countries increasingly irrelevant when it comes to influencing events in Fiji.
"We have a wonderful relationship with China and we're trying to build on that," Bainimarama enthuses. He's clearly grateful for a published seven-fold increase in Chinese aid in the year after his coup, evidently much more since and the prospect of more to come.
"Yes, the Chinese are giving us money," he says, without revealing how much except for a $US1 million ($1.37 million) donation to the Prime Minister's Office for Disaster Relief.
"They're very sympathetic and understand what's happening here, that we need to do things in our own way," he says.
China has embarked on several infrastructure projects, including a hydro-electric scheme on the main island, Viti Levu, that will employ 300 imported Chinese workers. Signs of an increased Chinese presence abound, from shops and bars to ships in port and Chinese trucks sporting Chinese lettering, plus the ubiquitous red star, plying Fiji's roads.
What riles Bainimarama is the perceived double standard of Australia and NZ shunning Fiji while not just engaging the dictatorship in China but actively promoting its interests in global forums. "With Fiji, they've approached just about everyone in the world to stay away and asked the UN to have us removed from peacekeeping operations. That will fail," Bainimarama insists.
The shift in Fiji's allegiances leaves many uneasy about what happens when local hearts and minds remain well disposed towards Australia and NZ but pockets begin to fill with yuan and rupees.
While Bainimarama's opponents applaud the tough regional stance against him, others wonder about the price Australia and NZ eventually may pay in strategic terms for a stance that's widely seen as flawed.
Will Bainimarama back down? Not with support from China and India, both with ample means to back their own strategic ambitions as emerging global powers.
What would an early election achieve? Well that's the problem: precisely the same dynamic that triggered the 2006 coup.
All sides concede that, without electoral reform, any poll in Fiji would produce certain victory for Bainimarama's chief political opponent, Laisenia Qarase. And there's the rub, for Bainimarama insists Qarase is finished because of his racist agenda and will return to power "over my dead body". The burly guards who constantly shadow the PM are there to ensure the latter part of the prophecy is not fulfilled.
Bainimarama has some important allies, not just the venerable President but several progeny of Fiji's old ruling elite - the Mara and Ganilau chief families - that took the country to independence from Britain in 1970.
Joining us for tea and pancakes at the barracks is someone lofty in physical stature and status, Tevita Uluilakeba Mara, Bainimarama's army chief of staff and the younger son of modern Fiji's founding father, Kamisese Mara. The country's newly appointed Vice-President Epeli Nailatikau - a former high commissioner and head of the military before being deposed by Sitiveni Rabuka in the 1987 coup - happens to be married to one of Mara's daughters, Adi Koila. She's a former senator who has particular cause to detest indigenous extremism, having been one of Speight's hostages in the 56-day siege of the parliament in 2000.
Bainimarama confirms that the new Vice-President was his first choice in 2000 to lead Fiji after the Speight coup but Nailatikau declined the role, so he turned to Qarase.
On such fateful choices can a nation's destiny depend.
Then, there's Defence Minister Epeli Ganilau, Bainimarama's predecessor as army commander who handpicked him for the post in 1999. He comes from another distinguished family, that of former governor-general and president Penaia Ganilau, and also married one of Mara's daughters, Adi Ateca.
Unlike many chiefs who were bitter rivals, the elder Mara and Ganilau forged a partnership in nation-building that served Fiji well in the years after independence and was notable for their strong personal friendships with people of other races.
But they came to be envied and resented by certain other chiefs, who were the hand in the glove of Speight's intention in the 2000 coup to rid Fiji of what he identified as the "Mara clique". Now that Nailatikau, Mara's son-in-law, is in line to succeed Iloilo as president, some believe the Mara clique is poised to make a comeback, though with Bainimarama in charge running a common agenda.
While no one can be certain of it - given the venal nature of Fijian politics - many will hope this signals a return to some of the more enlightened aspects of the elder Mara's rule.
Chief among these were a healthy economy, infrastructure development and above all the notion, largely abandoned by Mara's indigenous successors, that Fiji can succeed only with all races working together as one nation.
The point is that many of those around Bainimarama aren't the coup-making thugs that have brought Fiji to its knees in recent years (though some, of course, put Bainimarama in this category), but individuals of genuine achievement with some of Fiji's bluest blood coursing through their veins.
Unlike other chiefs who've aligned themselves with the indigenous cause, these individuals are also imbued with the vision of their fathers of a multiracial Fiji where indigenous values are respected but all races enjoy the same opportunities.
Mara's dream was to emulate the success of his friend Lee Kuan Yew in creating a smaller but equally thriving version of Singapore in the South Seas. Replete, of course, with the same respectful media and intolerance of anything or anyone posing a threat to national unity. As with Bainimarama now, this theory holds that in developing countries with nascent democratic structures, keeping the peace comes before freedom of expression.
Mara's vision was lost in the naked opportunism of the likes of Rabuka in the coups of 1987, Speight in 2000 and, arguably, Qarase in the months before Bainimarama says he had to draw a line under Qarase's own racist agenda.
Had Qarase got his way, Bainimarama maintains, his reconciliation bill would have seen Speight and his violent ilk again strutting the streets of Suva. And his coastal resources bill would have made non-indigenous Fiji citizens obliged to pay cash to their neighbours to use the seas. Another of Qarase's proposed bills put a question mark over the sanctity of freehold title.
Some opponents, notably in legal circles, argue that Bainimarama acted prematurely in 2006 because a power-sharing arrangement with the Opposition, forced on Qarase by the constitution, might have been a brake on the more extreme parts of his supremacist agenda. Dismissing this as naive, Bainimarama says his critics should focus more on Qarase's record and what that would have meant for Fiji's minorities, rather than support a process that would see Qarase restored.
He's also asking Canberra and Wellington to better understand his own motives, to go beyond the power-hungry stereotype and genuinely examine why he took the journey from hero, for locking up Speight in 2000, to regional pariah nine years on.
"My vision for Fiji is one that's free of racism. That's the biggest problem we've had in the last 20 years and it needs to be taken out," he explains. "It's the lies that are being fed to indigenous Fijians that are causing this, especially from our chiefs who are the dominating factor in our lives. And the politicians take advantage of that. We need to change direction in a dramatic way.
"We need to get rid of Qarase and everything associated with the 2000 coup and begin entirely on a new path."
That path is already evident in some of the faces in the corridors of power, overwhelmingly indigenous in recent years but now showing a modicum of diversity.
More Indo-Fijians are appearing in senior roles, notably high-profile attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum - the bete noir of legal purists - and recently appointed Reserve Bank governor Sada Reddy, who replaced an indigenous Fijian, Savenaca Narube.
Bainimarama says he'd be appointing a lot more were it not for Australian and NZ travel bans on members of the regime, which are deterring some of the best and brightest potential recruits with family connections abroad. He's also lifted the prohibition, under the abrogated constitution, on Fiji citizens holding dual citizenship, something he hopes will attract back many who've fled since 1987 and can return with their boltholes secured.
At 55, Bainimarama is part of the generation old enough to have grown up under reasonably enlightened British rule, with indigenous chiefs who commanded respect, and the promise of a bright future and independence as a beacon for other emerging Pacific nations.
Remarkably in republican Fiji, Bainimarama still sees himself as "a Queen's man" and works, in all his offices, under photographs of the distant sovereign and her consort, junked after the second coup 22 years ago.
"I'm still loyal to the Queen. Many people are in Fiji," he says. "One of the things I'd like to do is see her restored as our monarch, to be Queen of Fiji again."
As they say, nostalgia ain't what it used to be. But maybe that's what drives Bainimarama most of all; the notion, however quixotic, of a multiracial meritocracy belatedly fulfilling the great promise Fiji had in its early post-independence years, when a visiting pope John Paul II famously described it as a model for the developing world. Before the greed, the racism and the gun.
Graham Davis is a Fiji-born journalist and a principal in Grubstreet Medi
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