Myanmar pearling : past , present and future by

We have recently had the pleasure of travelling through several of the Pacific Island countries, looking at joint-venture development opportunities for pearl culture within the Small Island States on behalf of the Forum Secretariat. Part of this work involved examination of various tax and investment regimes, as they apply to pearl culture. The results were surprising for the dramatic differences in receptivity to foreign investment expressed in the different countriesÕ codes. These ranged from an outright ban on any foreign ownership in any pearl culture-related enterprise in one country, attempting to protect local ownership in existing farms, to attractive tax incentives in island countries seeking to jump-start outer island economies (have you noticed the price of copra lately?). There were also many countries that seemed lost in the muddle in between. The conflicting attitudes to foreign investment were perhaps best exemplified in a draft fisheries development plan that we recently offered comments on, for a country with a nascent industry. The plan called for foreign investment to help get pearl culture moving, but stated the express intention, once the industry was up and running, of eliminating all foreign ownership and turning pearl culture over to exclusively local ownership. This seems hardly a persuasive argument for someone to plonk his money down! We must, of course, declare an interest here: we are intimately involved in the argument, with our Marshall Islands subsidiary being largely financed by overseas investment. We are ourselves an Ôoverseas partnerÕ in this and other ventures. So it is not appropriate for us, or for anybody else, to tell any Pacific Island nation how they should develop their pearl culture industry. It is not appropriate for anyone to tell any prospective farmer in the Pacific how he should raise his capital. It is, most definitely, his own business. Research notes and reports p. 3 Myanmar pearling: past, present and future by T. Tun p. 3 ACIAR project enters second phase p. 8 and more. .. 2 Foreign investment is a double-edged sword, and is not always needed. French Polynesia and the Cook Islands have both been able to bootstrap their pearl farming operations, with extended family cooperatives using spat collectors to raise farm stocks. Spat collecting may also work in some open reef areas of the Pacific (note the recent work in Solomon Islands by the ICLARM-CAC: see p. 14 inside), and farming there may follow a low-capital …