Chinese Government grants Cook Islands NZ $2,106,000 for Pearl Farming Equipment Project

On March 24th, 2014, the Chinese Ambassador and Cook Islands Commissioner signed letters of exchange in Wellington for the Cook Islands Pearl Farming Equipment Project. On January 28th, 2015, a handover ceremony was held for the donation of the equipment, with NZ $2,106,000, in Avarua, on the Rarotonga Island. Chinese manufacturer LiuGong provided the equipment; most of it will be received by Infrastructure Cook Islands. Training will be provided to the operators and the contract between the government and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) stated the machines would be maintained by the Chinese company for the first 12 months. Ten 40 ft (12.2 meter) containers of ropes, floats, spat collectors, vomit bags, and chaplets were donated and divided between farmers on the outer islands and Infrastructure Cook Islands. The donation is in response to the rapid decline of pearl production on the island of Manihiki and the Outer Islands, and the effect this is having on the local residents. The donation of this equipment poses a number of issues for the lagoon clean up initiative: (1) It makes the reuse of the old floats and other equipment less desirable; (2) Should all the equipment be utilized to establish new farms, it is very likely that the sustainable pearl farming limits will be well exceeded; and (3) It may lead to future abandonment of equipment if controls are not improved with a bond imposed.

Number of official sources

9

Number of total sources

13