5 Jun 2014

Expropriation possible for French Polynesia fish farm

3:16 pm on 5 June 2014

The French Polynesian government says the expropriation of land on Hao atoll will only be a last resort to launch a huge Chinese aquaculture project.

A deal was reached earlier this year with Tian Rui International Investment for fish farms that would see investments worth 1.7 billion US dollars and create about 2,000 jobs.

The project was to go ahead on Makemo atoll but it has now been shifted to Hao, where demonstrations were held last week.

Nearly half the government spent last weekend on the atoll to persuade the residents of the benefits of the project.

A government has also sent a ship with divers and workers to Hao for accelerate the clean-up of the lagoon which the French military used to discard equipment and vehicles no longer needed after it stopped testing its nuclear weapons.