World Bank Encourages Pacific Nations To Embrace Tourism

The World Bank will present its blueprint for Pacific success — which sees tourism as the “crucial economic backbone” — at the annual meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum.

Capitalising on the Chinese market alone, it says, tourism could create 65,000 jobs and boost the Pacific economy by more than $1 billion — if crucial infrastructure is created and well maintained.

The bank, whose Pacific Possible report was three years in the making, believes “improved internet access and connectivity” could not only greatly improve productivity but create opportunities for Pacific workers to join global value chains.

Information and communications technology reform could deliver new mobile phone access and affordability to six million islanders, provide 250,000 jobs and increase regional GDP by $4bn, it says.

The Pacific Islands Forum summit will be held in Apia, Samoa, on Thursday and Friday.

The report warns that if the region continues on its present path, non-communicable diseases — for which “prevention is possible and achievable” — could cost the loss of up to 10 per cent of gross domestic product by 2040 across the region. It also expects the impacts of climate change and natural disasters to continue increasing, “negating hard-fought development gains”.

The report, which covers the 11 World Bank member island countries, focuses on issues and opportunities they share. So it does not include, for instance, Papua New Guinea’s multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas sector or Fiji’s established niche manufacturing.

It urges expanding the opportunities for workers from the island countries — including opportunities within Australia and New Zealand, but also in adding new host nations such as Canada and South Korea. It predicts more labour mobility could provide many new jobs, including for 30,000 seasonal workers whose remittances back to their home islands would reach $1bn.

Better fisheries management, including harnessing greater yields from sustainable catches, could provide up to 15,000 jobs and up to $400 million in additional public revenues. The “dramatic increase in revenue from fisheries” already under way under the Parties of the Nauru Agreement joint management of the sector, the bank says, is “a clear example of how co-operation among island countries can help to unlock economic opportunities”.

The report urges the establishment of a regional technical services provider or regulator for the new sector of deep-sea mining, with its many economic opportunities and also environmental impact risks.

Such opportunities, the bank says, can help the island countries “achieve sustained high growth” which has mostly eluded them through their 30-50 years of independent existence.

Agriculture will remain an important source of livelihood for many islanders, and that this too “requires continued attention by policymakers”.

Pacific Possible recommends that rather than struggle to achieve broadbased economy-wide reforms in the hope that this will trigger growth, “reform efforts should be narrowly targeted at unlocking existing growth opportunities”.

The region’s safe marine and island environment and its location close to the increasingly wealthy economies of East Asia, are valuable advantages it should be realising. The report predicts that Vanuatu, Samoa and Palau will be the greatest beneficiaries of the projected tourism boom, followed by Fiji and Tonga.

(Source: The Australian Business Review 05 September 2017)