Rt€@lll

- L44
assessing the best alLernatives for aid dispension. The European Economic Community
G.i.c.l, as part of lhe Lqne II Convention, has allocated about U5$6 million and the United
rrr"ti"r"'us$i mitlion to be used to develop enerqy potentials in the countries' The data
gathering team and the funds are being co-orainated by the- south Pacific Bureau for
Economic co-qeration (SpEC) which is -based in suva, Fiji. The firs_t author (Llovd) was
involved in the initiat stages of the data gathering doing a-pre-survey of the solomon Islands
and Vanuatu. Mrs Siwatib-au, the co-autho-r, visite-d most of the countries as part of the main
ieam which was led by Ken Newcombe. ln addition, the East-West Center in Hawaii has been
.rfi""li"g energy data as parl of a separate programme and so has the Asian Development
Bank and the world Bank. This led to some duplGation of effort in data collection; shortly
after the first author visited the Solomon Islands, the SPEC team of four persons visited
aronq witn iwo frorn tfre E.E.C., end at the same time there was a team from lhe Asian
Ol"u'top."nt Bank, all aften the same information from a country which has no governrrpnt
;;""g/ specialisL. other agencies interesLed or involved in energy matters are the South
pacif ic Commission iu"""o in Noumea)' SRREIS (Australia), ESCAP' I'L'o', UNDAT' UNDP'
and of course USP and the regional governments'
The impelus for all this activity comes from two main sources. First the region is fossil
fuel poor and is extrernely reliant upon imported petroleum products' Sec.o1lly the region is
small in population and reasonably poor bui surrounded by rich countries which have strategic
and political rnotives for organizing aid'
As far as energy data goes, the overall situation is fairly well defined for all the ten
countries. There "r"-ro." ga-ps, however, in particular areas, e'g' the hydroelectric potential
of the Solomon Islands. sorne of these gaps will be filled in by the monito-ring.sections of the
Pacific Energy Programme, e.g. solar an-d'wind measutement programmes' Detailed information
on sectoriat energy ur" p"ttjtns, however, is only avajlable or becoming available for two
countries, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. This sectorial information (How much and what kind of
"r"rgy ir n"LdrO in the domestic sector for cooking, refrigerationr.ironing, etc'? What is
needed for industry and commerce?) is vital before deciding' on development priorities' The
authors' work in this area will be nrentioned later'
The problems faced by the countries to secure some relief from reliance on imported
oil products vary considerably with differences in si ze, population. anl economic condition'
Table I shows, foi-example, tlpt Tuvalu has an area of only 26 km' whereas Papua New
Guinea covers some 450r0b0 kml. Population likewise varies from a nere )1400 in Niue to f
million in Papua New Guinea. similarly Tabte 2 shows that economic status varies' Tuvalu, for
example, whose major money earner is slamps, has a G.D.P. of about US$l million, while
P4ua New Guinea has a G.D.P. of over U5$2t000 million'
Tuvalu
Cmk lslands
Niue
Tmga
Kiribati
Western Samoa
Vanuatu
Fiji
Solomon Islands
Papua New Guinea
Table I : Basic Statistics
Ar.g
KM
26
2t5
260
670
690
2r9t4
L2,2OO
L8,272
27,560
46?r?4O
Pqulation PoPulation Pqulation
1000s Growth Rate DensitY
Plkm'
7.5
L7.5
t.4
98
58.6
r58
Lzt
670
240
1000
o.96
-0.9%
-i.?%
2.L%
2.0%
0.896
4.2%
1.9i6
,.L%
?.L%
288
74
ll
146
85
54
IO
J7
I 6.5