China in the Pacific Islands: Beyond the ‘Bad Dragon’ Narrative
141interest-free periods to nations such as Tonga, Samoa and the Cook
Islands.” It also stepped up its aid to Fiji following the 2006 coup.”^108
Chinese investment also needs to be analyzed and understood within
the big picture of the investment activities of extra-regional actors. As
noted by Jenny Hayward Jones, it is generally not easy to collect reliable
data on foreign direct investment in the Pacific Islands, both because of
the weaknesses of Pacific Island government collection agencies and the
unwillingness of providing figures of some investors.^109 Nevertheless, an
increasing diversity in the investment-sphere once dominated by Australia
and New Zealand is emerging. New players have entered the resource,
aviation and communication scenes. For instance, Digicel, an Irish
telecommunications company, has aggressively stepped into the mobile
phone markets of most Pacific Island states, and dramatically changed the
communications arena in the region.^110 French energy companies have
invested in Fiji and Papua New Guinea as well as the French Pacific. In
Papua New Guinea, the US oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil has a US$19
billion investment in an integrated liquefied natural gas development in
the Southern Highlands and Western Provinces that surpasses any other
private sector investment in the region.^111
Papua New Guinea has actually been targeted by a vast array of Asian
investors, including a South Korean bio-fuel project and a Japanese
cement company. Malaysian companies hold the lion’s share of the timber
industry in Papua New Guinea, and also have considerable interests in the
palm oil industry, real estate, media and retail.^112 The tuna processing
industry has drawn investments from companies in the Philippines, South
Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and China.^113 In Samoa, Japanese firm Yazaki
is the biggest private sector employer. Malaysia’s company MBf Holdings
Berhad has invested in many industries all over Melanesia.^114 In light of
this diverse, vast, and multi-faceted range of investors it is easy to
understand that the participation of Chinese businesses in the competitive
economic environment of the Pacific Islands region is a “natural” or a
(^108) Ibid. See also: Mary Fifita and Fergus Hanson, “China in the Pacific: The New
Banker in Town”, Issues & Insights, vol. 11, no. 5, April 2011.
(^109) Hayward Jones, “Big enough for all of us, Geo-strategic competition in the
Pacific Islands”, 8.
(^110) Network Strategies, “Affordability of mobile services hampered by quasi-
monopolies in the Pacific.”
(^111) PNG LNG, “The PNG LNG Project.”
(^112) ABC Radio Australia, “Malaysian puts big investment into PNG shopping.”
(^113) The Daily Catch, “Pacific Nations Alarmed by Tuna Overfishing.”
(^114) MBf Holdings Berhad, Global Presence.