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New Caledonia's President Vows Fairer Wealth Distribution
Real estate news By Pacific
Tuesday: January 08, 2008
New Caledonia's President Harold Martin has vowed to take advantage of the French Pacific territory's "exceptional" growth to apply a fairer wealth distribution. Martin, addressing the local Congress on the occasion of his speech of general policy, also suggested a scheduled referendum on independence, in 2018, might not be necessary.
Martin told the Congress on Friday that in the current favourable economic context, and an economic growth of some 4.5 per cent, mainly driven by the boom in the nickel mining industry, the time was right for New Caledonia's government to focus in a fir distribution of the generated wealth between the Southern part of New Caledonia (which is often regarded as the richest part of the French overseas territory) and the usually less-favoured North and Loyalty Islands.
The current economic boost is a direct consequence of the existence and construction of at least three major world-class multi-billion dollar nickel mining projects, two in the South and one in the North. Another factor is the current boom in nickel prices on the world market and the fact that New Caledonia holds about a quarter of the world's known deposits. "This government pledges that the good results of our economy allow each and everyone to see their living conditions improve so that growth is allowed to become the cement of New Caledonia's construction", pro-French Martin said. The New Caledonian President (who is also the head of one of New Caledonia's main pro-French parties, the Avenir Ensemble -Future Together-) also announced a series of measures aimed at reducing the cost of living, such as a tighter control on prices and the scrapping of the yearly car owners' road tax.
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