Posted on: Friday, September 24, 2004
Conference in L.A. promotes island development
By Frank Oliveri
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON — Along the lava-coated coast of Kona, sweet grapes are harvested three to four times a year, compared with once a year elsewhere.
Charlotte Vick, chairwoman of Common Heritage Corp., said her company developed a technology in which cold ocean water — from up to 2,000-feet deep — is pumped through pipes beneath the lava, chilling the soil to produce springlike conditions year-round. The condensation on the pipes irrigates the crops.
Vick was scheduled to present her company's technology — called Cold Ag — at the Department of Interior's Conference on Business Opportunities in the Islands, being held yesterday and today in Los Angeles.
She and up to 800 other business and civic leaders and government officials are meeting to discuss business opportunities in Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia.
"It is such a great opportunity to get all the islands together in one place," Vick said. "It would take three to four weeks to hit all the territories, and you wouldn't get to see all these people."
The U.S. government plans to spend billions of dollars over the next 20 years on roads, water and sewer improvements, communications, and military expansion in the islands. Coupling government and private-sector investment creates numerous business opportunities and could transform the islands' economies from subsistence to self-sustaining.
"We send hundreds of millions of dollars out to the islands every year," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
Easing of dependence
This is the second year that Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior David Cohen, a Pacific Islander descendant, has organized the conference.
Last year, about 500 business people attended.
Cohen said the goal is to make the heavily subsidized islands more self-sufficient, while "improving their quality of life."
Cohen wants businesses on the islands to create partnerships with other businesses or compete for U.S. government contracts. He has traveled across the Mainland, Hawai'i and the other islands, spreading the word to people like Joe Davis, CEO of Texas-based Agrilogic Inc.
Davis' company helps communities develop sustainable and insurable agriculture.
In areas such as Guam, which suffer typhoons regularly, Davis said his company could provide advice on how to create programs to support insurable agriculture there. He said Guam faces no more hazards than farmers in the Midwest.
"It's a perception problem," he said.
Angie Williams, acting special adviser for economic policy in the Office of Insular Affairs, said research into business opportunities on all of the islands were boiled down to some key areas:
• Tourism. • Fisheries. • Infrastructure including roads, water supply and food. • Education, such as island universities partnering with Mainland universities. Successes highlighted
Expert panels will offer insight into government contracting. They will highlight success stories, such as how $3.5 billion in government money will be made available over 20 years to the Marshall Islands and Micronesia for development of support services.
The Office of Insular Affairs also is making it possible for business-to-business meetings.
"We want to promote more activity from the private sector," Cohen said. "We need the islands to develop strong, sustainable economies over the long term."
Vick said her company has identified 200 places around the globe where deep-ocean technology might transform the landscape.
She said companies could spend tens of thousands of dollars and weeks of time simply traveling to the islands to seek business opportunities and partnerships. The conference makes it easier to build relationships.
"This is a very efficient way to get the message out," she said. "There is no substitute for seeing people face to face."
