Kiribati Chooses For Strong Alliance With Taiwan ff

Kiribati President Anote Tong marks his one-year anniversary in office during the mid-July celebrations of Kiribati's 25th anniversary of independence. His most important accomplishment-aside from the widely publicized shift in diplomatic relations to the Republic of China (Taiwan) that promises the prospect of hugely increased aid and trade-may be his bluntness in dealing with the issues that confront the atoll nation.

Tong's jettisoning of the ATR-72 aircraft soon after taking office last year, ending Kiribati's short 18-month flirtation with international air service, is indicative of his attitude. “We lost A $10 million (on the ATR-72), money we cannot afford,” he says. “There really isn't room for more than one international operator in this region. We found out by hard experience. The solution lies in a collaborative effort of existing partners.” While welcoming the coming expansion of Air Nauru's service linking Tarawa with Brisbane, Tong says “we can't put the load on one country. We must be willing to bear some of the costs (to make it work).”

The move to recognize Taiwan was a carefully calculated plan that fits with Tong's pragmatic attitude toward development needs in this watery, far-flung atoll group. With a businessman's approach to tackling the multitude of Kiribati's problems, he is taking aim at opening New Zealand and Australian labor markets to greater numbers of I-Kiribati. And he is keen to gain wider Pacific endorsement for a proposal to require foreign fishing companies to build fisheries-related facilities in the islands. “Economic development remains a major problem,” he told Pacific Magazine. “It is a more difficult situation than other islands face. We're at the end of the distribution line for everything.”

But Tong is adamant about regional cooperation-partly since it's an absolute necessity for small islands, but also because he sees it as the only way for Kiribati to improve the use of what is really its only resource, apart from its people.

“We have one huge resource-fish,” he says. “But it's under extreme pressure. Fishing fleets are putting greater pressure on Pacific fisheries (to the point that) they're in danger of over-fishing our most important resource if we don't put a halt to it.”

Tong wants a condition of fishing access for fleets from distant water fishing nations to be the provision of on-shore facilities for transshipping, processing and canning fish. “This will provide employment and a far greater share from the resource than we now receive,” he says. “I want to encourage the fishing industry to give us more value-added opportunities above the current 5-to-6-percent licensing fee we receive.”

Tong says he's talking with other island leaders about this, because although Kiribati's expansive 200-mile exclusive economic zone extends over one of the most important and lucrative tuna fishing grounds in the region, he believes that a regional effort would pay off for everyone. “Dialogue is important,” he says. “It has to be a partnership, rather than one side reaping the benefits of the resource and going away. We need to arrest that trend. It needs to be done on a region-wide basis. I'm talking with other heads of state. Once we agree, then we can convince the fishing countries.”

He sees the Taiwanese as investment partners, not solely aid donors. “The reason for seeing the ROC as an option is the private sector is interested to invest,” he says. Tong hopes to see major Taiwanese-backed fisheries developments on Christmas Island, which already has air service to Honolulu and a modest tourist infrastructure. The Taiwanese have the "capital, skills and markets,” Tong says. “We can provide access in exchange for a larger return (on the resource). It's a sustainable way to proceed.”

Regarding development, while the Pacific Islands Forum is a bridge to the less developed Island countries, Tong says it needs to remain attuned to the subtleties of the region that don't lend themselves to cookie-cutter solutions. “It's why we get together (in the Forum), to bring along the weaker members. It's what the Pacific is all about. The difference with the Western approach is it's very competitive and leaves the less powerful behind. In the Pacific, we go along at the pace of the weaker. It's a more human approach.”

He hopes that the larger countries, particularly Australia and New Zealand that are driving much of the reform agenda at the Forum and regionally, understand this. “There needs to be an appreciation of the diversity (in the Pacific) and how to incorporate it,” he says. “If you leave someone behind (in the push for reforms), it becomes meaningless.”

Over the years, Kiribati has established itself as a supplier of trained sailors to crew on cargo and other vessels around the world, work that leads to a significant contribution to the local economy through remittances by the seamen. This scheme is “a success,” he says. “Our people work hard-that's a fact. But the opportunities are not there to expand it.”

Tong, who clearly sees himself as a reformist- “if we've tried something for 20 years and it hasn't worked, don't keep doing it”-also has a small island view of the difficulties inherent in the current push for institutional reform throughout the region. “We don't have the resources and capacity to review and reform (our system),” he says. “We aren't planning for the next 20 years; we're just trying to survive.”

Kiribati President Anote Tong