French Polynesia recovery plan doomed to fail - journalist

Transcript

A journalist in Tahiti says French Polynesia will never build a strong, independent economy while the government continues to rely on subsidies from France.

The government's 50 point recovery plan includes boosting housing initiatives and construction, airport development, promoting tourist attractions, and creating employment opportunities.

But the publisher of the Tahiti-Pacifique monthly magazine, Alex du Prel, told Christopher Gilbert the plan is more of the same, and won't work.

ALEX DU PREL: There's nothing much new. All of these changes have already been mentioned when they made studies in 1991 and again 15 years later. Nothing has been done this is why we're in such a state. I would say the main worry about the paper is that it basically, all this development is by subsidising small and renewable businesses. Everything that is being proposed is either subsidised or relies on public money. For example, the big push ahead is new constructions; new roads, new airport, new everything, which is all public money. The government is broke so they're relying on France and maybe some Chinese investors. But the main problem of French Polynesia being that we have become, thanks to the nuclear tests, a consumer society with no production behind it and a consumer society only exists because the public servant, the public sector is paid very high wages. This is the whole problem of French Polynesia, it cannot go on like that.

CHRISTOPHER GILBERT Is the point here that those in positions of power don't want to see the private sector grow because they're very happy with their wages at the moment with an inflated public sector?

AP: Yeah, for example they have a whole chapter about creating new enterprises, boosting the private sector. But when you really read into it basically it's just teaching people how to register at the tax office or with the Chamber of Commerce and so on. We're a micro-society and you just don't have the market. They're not into reality, this is my analysis.

CG: So, it'll be more of the same, more talk and very little action to get the recovery of the economy going, or to build an economy to begin with?

AP: What they did, they say 'look we've already taken great action', then they mention the action and it means they raise taxes and duties. That's our problem in French Polynesia we're one of the most expensive areas in the world because of all these taxes, import duties, and so on. We produce very little. It will not change the problem at all.