The French overseas territories minister, Victorin Lurel, has told business leaders in French Polynesia that reforms are needed to make the territory more competitive.
Mr Lurel says tourism, fisheries and agriculture have the potential for the economic development of the territory, whose economy has slumped in recent years with unemployment doubling in the past five years.
While being reserved about demands for French financial support, he says it would be poor form for Paris not to accompany a territory making efforts to be rigorous about spending.
Mr Lurel has dismissed criticism by the opposition's Oscar Temaru as ongoing political campaigning.
Mr Temaru accused Paris of guaranteeing a corrupt system run by convicts - in a reference to the territory's president Gaston Flosse, who in the French sphere is the politician with the largest number of criminal convictions.
The French Polynesian presidency says Mr Temaru's incompetence is only matched by his hatred of France.
