Page 6 - Islands Business January 2021

Briefs Briefs

poration says it will be offering farmers affected by Cyclone
Yasa some relief, by reducing cane payment deductions in this
American Samoa second payment. The reductions will be recovered in the third
There’s new hope for American Samoans stranded in the payment for the 2020 season.
United States since the territory’s borders closed in response
to the COVID-19 pandemic in March. More than 500 people
are estimated to be affected, but now the American Samoa
health department has started the process for them to re- French Polynesia
turn. Travellers will need to go to Hawaii first and quarantine France has again asked the United Nations to remove French
for ten days before flying on to American Samoa, where they Polynesia from its list of territories to be decolonised. The
will quarantine for a further 14 days. French UN representative made the appeal during the UN sit-
ting at the end of last year, which French Polynesia’s delega-
tion was unable to attend due to travel restrictions.

Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands
A bid by the operators of the Hyatt Regency Saipan to extend Guam
its land lease has the support of the Saipan Chamber of Com- Guam’s government has seen a shortfall of US$8.2 million on
merce. Saipan Portopia Hotel Corp owns and manages the its projections of general revenue for the first two months
local Hyatt which the Chamber says, has continued to operate of the 2021 fiscal year, mainly due to a decline in business
“at a loss” throughout the pandemic to keep locals working. privilege tax collections. Similarly, overall revenue collections
The Chamber is concerned with the potential “negative and were down US$18 million compared to the same months in
rippling impact of losing another long-term investor in the 2020. Many Guam businesses are either still closed or operat-
CNMI” if the lease is not renewed. ing at a fraction of their capacity under COVID-19 measures.

Cook Islands Marshall Islands
Prime Minister Mark Brown says since the start of the corona- Marshall Islanders living in the US can again sign up for Med-
virus pandemic his government has spent more than NZ$53 icaid health benefits. The change, which was made as part
million (US$38 million) in economic support and stimulus of the American government’s larger coronavirus measures
measures. Brown says wage subsidies will continue through following support from lawmakers, will remedy a change
to April this year, when it is hoped the border will reopen to made in the 1996 welfare reform bill that researchers say
New Zealand visitors. has caused higher rates of sickness and death in stateside
Micronesian communities. Marshallese living in the US have
Emergency water supplies are being shipped to Tongareva also been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Sena-
in the north of the Cook Islands, where Prime Minister Mark tors supporting the reinstatement of protections such as
Brown says a six month drought represents the “very real Mazie Hirono, say the United States broke its promise to the
effects of climate change.” In early January, the government Marshallese after conducting nuclear tests there. Other Pacific
estimated existing water supplies would only last two weeks. Islanders, including FSM citizens, will also benefit from the
A desalination plant is also being sent to the island. changes.

Marshall Islands police have burnt over 649 kilograms of
Fiji cocaine after the largest-ever reported cache of drugs there
Another cohort of Fijians has departed Nadi to work in Aus- was discovered on a boat that washed up on the remote atoll
tralia under the Pacific Labour Scheme. 182 workers left in of Ailuk. The cocaine had an estimated street value of more
early January for jobs in New South Wales’ agricultural sector. than US$80 million.
They follow a similar deployment in November. Meanwhile
more than 300 ni-Vanuatu workers are anticipated to be
working in Western Australian farms and abattoirs by the end
of January. Nauru
Nauru Airlines is looking to renew its fleet through the pur-
The Reserve Bank of Fiji says while 2.1% more sugar cane chase of a next generation Boeing 737. The airline currently
was harvested at the end of the 2020 crushing season, its operates five Boeing 737-300s. Three are passenger aircraft
poorer quality meant sugar production declined by 5.1%. and two are dedicated freighters. Nauru Airlines CEO, Geof-
Meanwhile farmers are due to receive their second cane pay- frey Bowmaker says they plan to add one aircraft as early as
ment of F$12.83 per tonne in mid-January. The Fiji Sugar Cor- this year and steadily replace all the 300s over the coming

6 Islands Business, January 2021