Pacific Briefs

Y2K bug hits Fiji tax system

SUVA, Fiji Islands—The Y2K computer struck Fiji’s Value Added Tax system Tuesday and experts predict a serious loss in revenue if the problem is not fixed immediately.

Computers refused to properly print monthly forms for revenue to be collected from about 11,500 taxpayers billed on a three-month cycle.

The billing procedure involves printing three forms, one for each month. The first two forms printed normally. However, the third form, for the month of January, posed problems. The computer read the 00 in the date as being the year 1900 and began printing a form for each month since then — 1,200 forms for each of the 11,500 recipients.

Fiji parliamentarians get threats

SUVA, Fiji Islands—Police have beefed up security for cabinet ministers, politicians and senior government officials after a rash of recent telephone threats against their lives.

Inspector Peter Blake, an arms expert, said he will lead an 18-member police contingent to the United States shortly for specialized training in guarding VIPs.

The Fijians will attend a two-week course at the Diplomatic Secret Service Institute in West Virginia.

French Polynesia steps up drive vs drugs

PAPEETE, French Polynesia—Customs and immigration director Bernard Deutscher has declared what he called “total war” on drug trafficking in the French territory.

Deutscher said the most recent trafficking incident took place at Papeete’s Faa’a International Airport last month, when 2.2 pounds of cocaine were confiscated from a local man returning from Los Angeles.

The drugs had been acquired in the United States in trade for black pearls.

“We are now doing regular checks and searches on incoming and outgoing passengers at the airport,” Deutscher said.

Nickel plant opens in New Caledonia

NOUMEA, New Caledonia—Canada’s Inco, Ltd. has opened an experimental mineral production facility in New Caledonia in preparation for a commercial operation with the potential to produce 27,000 tons of nickel and 3,000 tons of cobalt yearly by 2003.

Construction of the $50-million pilot plant was started in 1997 at Goro, where there is a nickel reserve capable of being mined for the next 50 years.

The full-sized processing plant is expected to create 700 jobs and cost an estimated $1.4 billion.

Inco is the world leader in nickel production. Last year it sold 250,000 tons of the metal, 27 percent of the world’s supply.

Customs vessel starts policing border

MADANG, Papua New Guinea—An illicit trade in drugs, weapons and illegal immigrants along the Papua New Guinea-Irian Jaya border will now be monitored closely with the assignment of a newly built customs boat, the Loko, in the region.

Internal Revenue Commissioner General David Sode said the high-speed patrol vessel has been outfitted with sophisticated surveillance equipment and is the first properly installed vessel to monitor the area.