Australian logistical solutions to help
Australian logistic experts are advising some Pacific Island governments to introduce cutting-edge logistical improvements to boost their economies.
Some Foreign Investment Boards of Pacific nations, which includes Fiji, Tonga, Guam, Nauru, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Micronesia and the Solomon Islands are considering innovative concept by Australian company Logistics Bureau.
The concept, presented to the Ministers at a recent conference, focuses on creating regional harmony and developing optimum freight exit/entry points in and effort to streamline supply chains and increase trade.
Logistics Bureau director Maurice Sinclair said key improvements to local production and infrastructure could immediately generate millions of dollars to the island economies.
“The domestic fragmentation among the Pacific Islands nations reduces regional competitiveness,” Mr Sinclair said.
For example, local airlines are compensating for a very limited freight base resulting in nearly all of them suffering utilisation issues.
On Nauru, for instance, there is very little fresh fruit and vegetables delivered to the outer islands because it is not efficient for cargo planes to carry these goods on a regular basis.
“If a regional transport hub was established in the Pacific Island region, significant improvements could be made in boosting trade and providing opportunities for economic growth.”
Mr Sinclair said developing optimum freight exit/entry points and boosting storage capacity, as well as better understanding market supply and demand was important for the Pacific Islands.
He said the Pacific Islands governments needed to create a master plan focusing on creating regional harmony and cohesive trade development.
Key companies and freight facilitiators could be targetted and trade links could be developed through cities like Brisbane as part of the plan.
“My advice to the trade advisors was to ask ‘how can we as island nations work together”.
The other major focus was to bridge economic development with commercial development objectives. It is rare to find economic development agency who actually understand the needs of their target customers.
Most use the same incentive based approach to gaining new business without actually understanding how a boardroom actually makes a decision to use one entry port or another.
“In all business it is important to understand what your customer needs rather than push incentive based “carrots” that fail to allow differentiation between the competing ports.”
