Enterprise Support Organisations in the South Pacific

In the present world economic climate many governments in the developing world are taking an increasingly active role in encouraging the development and expansion of new business enterprises. It is argued that better use can be made of national resources by tapping indigenous enterpreneurial talents, to encourage competition and offer a wider range of goods and services. This is particularly true in the developing island nations of the South Pacific where governments inheriting the mantle of the previous colonial regimes still maintain a dominant role in the island economies. They are the largest employer, the major source of investment and project funding, they regulate the exploitation of natural resources and dictate national planning goals. These island governments can no longer maintain this catalystic role, if only, as suggested recently by Fiji's Minister of Economic Planning, Ratu David Toganivalu, because of the huge burden of servicing the loans attached to these investments. Thus developing nations look towards a dynamic indigenous private sector to further their development goals.