Lack of brainpower hampering economy

Transcript

A Cook Islands opposition party wants help from New Zealand to address a lack of brain power to move the country forward.

James Beer of the Democratic Party told Sally Round, the flow of people out of the country has been a tragedy for the Cook islands and he says New Zealand could help with expertise.

JAMES BEER: As populations shrink, so does our capacity to be able to manage these resources or to manage policies and economic development on diversification, and clearly that's been shown already and what we spoke to the Prime Minister of New Zealand about was we need to be able to get the kind of expertise and capacity for us to be able to co-ordinate both our legislative framework, our political reform situation, and our economic reforms, and linking that to sustainable development in terms of our education. Making sure that our education curriculum ties in with those development initiatives.  A classic example of the lack of that, is that we've got incredible resources in terms of fisheries, we've got over two million square kilometres of ocean, the third largest EEZ (exclusive economic zone) in the world. We've got land, good quality land, in the outer islands, and Rarotonga that lies fallow at the moment and there's very little production from it. So our discussions with John Key, focused around, how do we get repopulation occurring in the Cook Islands? His point was, people need to eat and people need jobs and that's they only way we can develop the country's economy and diversify it, is to get the economy working to get people to come back.

SALLY ROUND: Do you think the initiatives, the aid development programme that New Zealand's undertaken and the $NZ42 million that have been promised for the next three years, is that going to help this problem that you talk about?

JB: For as long as it's properly co-ordinated. We recently got a loan, sorry not a loan, a grant from the Chinese Government in excess of seven million dollars. I think that was a waste of money and a waste of time primarily because there was no co-ordination to that effort, it was a purchase of machinery, [but] there was no national policy initiative to use those machines. The machinery that arrived here has ended up in a situation where it's possibly going to become a monument to our testimony for a lack of initiative and a lack of forward thinking. In light of what you just told me now ( the NZ$42 million aid programme), yeah certainly, as long as it's co-ordinated, and I think a lot of that could be in the form of expertise, that could co-ordinate all those efforts because if we can get that kind of assistance the Cook Islands economy could take off far better than the last few years. We've become a one dimensional, monoculture of tourism and it's become too important to the point where it's not being able to deliver the results that we want or expect it to deliver and it's become a situation which we haven't been able to really address the issues that surround it both it's infrastructure, waste management issues, along with import substitution, we haven't been able to grapple with those issues properly and I think that's the problem we've got at the moment, is getting people to be able to co-ordinate that. Unfortunately we've got politicians and ministers who don't necessarily have that kind of background, they come from backgrounds where they're very popular in the village setting but when it comes to being able to work alongside business development and business mentoring for the country's economic development, we don't have that. A lot of the talent that was here no longer is here, and getting that talent to be able to co-ordinate those efforts is the biggest challenge that I see the country facing at the moment.

SR: How are you going to address it? How are you going to attract those people back?

JB: In order for us to do that, we've got to have a nice strong conversation with countries like New Zealand which we've got a wonderful relationship with. Because, for sure, they've got some of those talents over there that we could possibly use or borrow for a period of time,

SR: And you're not just talking about Cook Islanders living there, you're talking about any expertise?

JB: Absolutely, yeah, and we can probably surround them with a number of our youngest and brightest people to be able to work and co-ordinate these efforts and co-ordinate those efforts and get this whole vaka moving along in a direction we think will be able to repopulate the Cook Islands.

SR: So it's  human resources you want, not projects, not money?

JB: Yeah, projects and money are great, as long as we've got a plan.

SR: Has that relationship, with New Zealand, having New Zealand passports, been non-beneficial for the Cook Islands in the long run?

JB: Not necessarily, only by the fact that we have a New Zealand passport, but I think the biggest problem that we face is trying to be able to make sure that people stay here for the right reasons. And those right reasons are the very reasons why they're leaving. If you look at the Cook Islands and look at small island states around the Pacific, I think you'd probably agree, that most of them have got sort of one dimensional economies, and there's not enough room for them to be able to develop the skills. If we look at the opportunities the country has particularly in terms of how much we import, I think we import possibly around 300 million dollars worth of goods and services and products, that in itself represents an opportunity for people to be able to come back here and start working those areas.

Mr Beer put the request to the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key during 50th anniversary self governance celebrations last week (week beginning 3rd Aug).