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Why Don't Pacific Island Countries' Economies Grow Faster.Pdf Pacific Interactions Pasifika in New Zealand – New Zealand in Pasifika Edited by Alastair Bisley Institute of Policy Studies Published in 2008 (online only) http://ips.ac.nz Institute of Policy Studies School of Government Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600 Wellington © Institute of Policy Studies ISBN 978-1-877347-27-6 IPS/Pub/159 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced without the permission of the Institute of Policy Studies. Copy editor: Belinda Hill Cover design: Alltex Design Contents List of Figures...............................................................................................................iv List of Maps...................................................................................................................v List of Tables.................................................................................................................v List of Boxes.............................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................ix Introduction –Alastair Bisley.........................................................................................1 1 Emerging Demographic and Socioeconomic Features of the Pacific Population in New Zealand – Paul Callister and Robert Didham ....................13 2 Pacific People in the New Zealand Economy: Understanding linkages and trends – Jean-Pierre de Raad and Mark Walton ........................................41 3 Pasifika Mobility: Pathways, circuits, and challenges in the 21st century – Richard Bedford .............................................................................................85 4 Pacific Island Economies: Role of international trade and investment – Bob Warner...................................................................................................135 5 Why Don’t Pacific Island Countries’ Economies Grow Faster? – John Gibson and Karen Nero .....................................................................191 6 Border Management in the Pacific Region – Michael Moriarty .....................245 Appendix A: Thought Leaders Dialogue, Auckland, New Zealand, 2007................289 Appendix B: Keynote Address by Greg Urwin, Secretary General, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, at the Pasifika Project: Auckland Dialogue....................297 Collated References...................................................................................................307 © Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, 2008 5 Why Don’t Pacific Island Countries’ Economies Grow Faster? John Gibson1 and Karen Nero2 Contents Introduction ...............................................................................................................191 Changing perceptions ................................................................................................193 Pacific systems of wealth ..........................................................................................215 Implications and possible interventions ....................................................................227 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................236 Annex: Improving development data ........................................................................233 References .................................................................................................................236 Introduction This chapter confronts the issue that the recent rate of growth of the economies of the Pacific Island countries is lower either than what is desired by their governments or what might reasonably be expected due to their proximity to global regions of rapid growth. Pacific governments and Pacific people, both in the islands and in New Zealand, seek ways to achieve sustainable economic growth so that they can fund improvements in education, health, and general living standards. Standard statistical assessments focused on the market economy concur that Pacific economies perform poorly, but may be misleading due to poor data on local food production and distribution that supports up to 84% of some Pacific populations. A better understanding of the value of local food and wealth systems may improve the quality of statistical assessments and assist planners to better support economic growth. We also analyse how poorly the region’s nations are doing in comparison with other similar nations (and how such similarity is best measured) and the degree to which governance issues contribute to poor performance. Could the island economies reasonably be expected to do better? If so, what national, regional, and international policy actions could support such improvements? We consider how best to frame our understandings of the region, using multiple perspectives and aided by geographical information system (GIS) maps of the region that challenge the reader to consider the complex interactions among 1 University of Waikato and Visiting Research Fellow, Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury. 2 Professor Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury. © Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, 2008 191 Pacific Interactions multiple factors. Our analyses have a large geographic component. This is appropriate given that this region of small volcanic and atoll islands plus the few large continental islands of the southwest Pacific covers one-third of the globe. Analyses of spatio-economic factors (ie, size, natural endowments, economic remoteness and the type of relationship with and economic strength of former colonial powers) emerge as important factors in explaining growth performance. We present some of these key variables in the form of thematic maps. New Zealand is host to the world’s largest Polynesian population, and has historically focused on the Polynesian world views of the Pacific region of its Māori indigenous population and of its resident populations from Samoa, Tonga and those Pacific nations freely associated with New Zealand (the Cook Islands and Niue) or considering such status (Tokelau). The ways in which New Zealand academics and members of the public frame the questions they use to understand the economic choices made by Pacific peoples and home nations tend to be coloured by their experiences and knowledge of Polynesian world views. We argue that building the economic strength of the entire region is critical to the success of any one nation. In particular, we must consider the large island of New Guinea, with its large population, diverse societies and habitats, and rich mineral and timber resources, as well as neighbouring Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. In the first section, entitled ‘Changing perceptions’, we consider ways to expand the base from which we understand the larger region. We begin with the recognition of western Pacific peoples’ millennia of experience of adapting to changing sea levels and cultivating, domesticating, and hybridising food crops suited to both high island and atoll conditions, as well as adapting to new arrivals and the resources and technologies they bring. A series of GIS maps suggests limits to our perceptions and how we might perceive wider Pacific realities, history, and knowledge more clearly. We assess recent negative analyses of Pacific economies and suggest alternative analyses of existing data. In the second section, entitled ‘Pacific systems of wealth’, we provide overviews and case studies to demonstrate how Pacific wealth systems work. Pacific societies build their social, cultural, and political institutions on the base of food production and distribution. As these foods are transmitted beyond the immediate family through kin, village communities, and trading partners both within and outside their societies, they are in the process transformed and exchanged for social capital as well as for indigenous wealth items and global goods and monies. Over the millennia, Pacific societies have developed their own monies and currencies for storing and transacting wealth across generations and across space. They include textiles such as the well-known tapa and fine mats of Polynesia, as well as hard wealth produced from stone (ie, greenstone, or pounamu in New Zealand) and the shell and bead currencies better known in other parts of the Pacific. Today’s exchanges and interactions at home and abroad draw upon both indigenous and global goods and monies. Mainly because of the difficulty of counting and understanding the economic contributions of these activities embedded in social and cultural institutions, economists and statisticians often characterise these as subsistence activities, and 192 © Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, 2008 Why Don’t Pacific Island Countries’ Economies Grow Faster? their extensions – monetised today in complicated systems that bridge to Western capital and monetary institutions – as forming the ‘informal economy’. Such transactions and wealth are generally uncounted or, at best, sampled from time to time in attempts to estimate their value in Western terms. In this vein, we consider recent assessments of the degree to which agricultural and fisheries production may be undercounted in the
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