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CONGRESSMAN ROBERT A. UNDERWOOD Delegate from Guam U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C.

NEWS RELEASE May 2, 2001

HEADS TO THE U.S. SENATE

The House today passed Congressman Robert A. Underwood's H.R. 309, the Guam Foreign Investment Equity Act, by a voice vote. The Act now heads to the Senate, where the Congressman hopes action will be as quick.

"I have already sent letters to Senator (Daniel) Akaka (D-Hawai‘i) and Senator (Frank) Murkowski (R-Alaska) for their support and hopefully the Senate will act as quickly as the House," the Congressman said.

The Guam Foreign Investment Equity Act would include Guam in treaty-negotiated tax rates on foreign investment in the U.S. Since at least 75 percent of the investment capital that comes into Guam is from foreign sources, if passed into law, the Equity Act would provide Guam with the same advantageous rates as the states. Currently, Guam's foreign investment tax rate is set by...

By Giff Johnson

MAJURO, Marshall Islands (May 1, 2001 - Marianas Variety/PINA Nius Online)---Long unattended development needs of people living on remote outer atolls in the Marshall Islands became the focal point of a National Economic and Social Summit.

Seven days of meetings involved more than 300 Marshall Islanders from government, business and community groups throughout this nation of 51,000. They brought needed attention to the historically ignored outer islands population, said several summit participants.

This was the second annual summit in the Marshalls. It was geared toward providing recommendations for a long-term strategic development plan that is being prepared to present to the U.S. government for future financial aid to replace economic provisions of a treaty that expires in 2003.

Several National Economic and Social Summit participants said the striking aspect about what most outer islanders talked about was the relatively small and...

MAJURO, Marshall Islands (April 13, 2001 – Marshall Islands Journal)---Getting coconut oil refining under way is the top priority of the RMI government’s plan for revitalizing the copra industry through development of what officials call "value-added products."

Since the mid-1990s, the Tobolar Copra Processing Authority has been attempting to build and start an oil refinery to produce edible oil, both for export and the local market, according to R&D Minister John Silk.

This has been done with second hand equipment when funds permitted. "No funding was made available to specifically build and commission the refinery," Silk said. "The result is a plant that is near completion but missing essential equipment to produce refined oil."

Late last year, the Cabinet approved completing the refinery, using Republic of China (Taiwan) funding, he said.

Silk said the refinery should be completed by October this year, now that equipment is on order.

Once...

CANADA-SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (C-SPOD) Apia, Samoa

NEWS RELEASE May 3, 2001 Suva, Fiji Islands

Six new Pacific island graduate students dove into full and part-time studies at the University of the South Pacific's marine studies program this term with the help of financial support from the Canadian government through the Canada-South Pacific Ocean Development (C-SPOD) Program.

The students, funded by the Program, received a two-year award to complete their degree and include:

"It is so important that Pacific islanders have the opportunity to study their marine resources because it is one of the few resources that Pacific island countries have and something that greatly impacts the lives of people in the region," says Dr. Kenneth MacKay, field program coordinator for C-SPOD. "By funding these graduate students, Canada is ensuring there are qualified experts in the Pacific who are from the region and are able to manage marine resources...