No need for guardianship

Hello everyone,

The APROFED association is returning to you this week on the economic issue and the absurd idea spread by some that the country is on the verge of defaulting on its payments and should therefore be placed under guardianship.

The association points out that while France pays nearly 120 billion CFP francs to New Caledonia each year for the pensions and salaries of these agents, almost as much, if not more, leaves the country each year for mainland France and abroad. The association is therefore proposing, as a special event, a special tax with a rate of 50% for all assets (sums of money) leaving the territory that are not intended for the purchase of supplies or capital goods intended for the country. This tax would thus bring in between  30 and 60 billion CFP francs per year .

The association also calls for the issue of the “fund for French people abroad,” to which Caledonians contribute 28 billion but receive only 8 billion, to be addressed. This means that  20 billion per year  would immediately go to CAFAT, ensuring the sustainability of the Local Retirement Fund (CLR).

It would also be appropriate to accept Indonesia’s outstretched hand regarding the creation of a nickel cartel. Since all nickel-producing countries are located in the Pacific basin, this measure could be quickly implemented with a stabilized price of a ton of nickel at $25,000, allowing support for the mining industry not only locally but also internationally, and thus allowing revenues of nearly  100 billion CFP francs per year .

In response to the recent reduction in civil servant salaries, the association proposes merging salaries and, more generally, the labor codes of the public and private sectors, not only for greater clarity but also for gains in payroll costs of  several hundred million to several billion per year.  It will also be appropriate to take advantage of this opportunity to verify and replace the contracts of expatriates and non-natives, not linked to New Caledonia by family ties, with native people so that salaries remain in the territory and are not partly sent outside it. The 50% tax mentioned above should normally resolve this problem de facto naturally.

New activities will also need to be created. To this end, the association proposes the rehabilitation of 20,000 hectares of orphan mines by growing hemp, as some countries do, with a view to producing CBD that could generate  more than 10 billion CFP francs per year . Since most of these mines are located on the East Coast, where the highest unemployment rates are, forcing populations to migrate to urban centers, this measure would solve several problems at once. It should be remembered that New Caledonia has jurisdiction over agriculture and public health.

Still in the agricultural sector, it would be appropriate to limit imports by QTOP or STOP measures in order to bring the food self-sufficiency rate, voluntarily set at less than 20%, to around 40 or even 60%. This measure would allow the territory to save at least  10 to 15 billion CFP francs per year .

At the energy level, it will be appropriate, through a simple law of the Congress of New Caledonia, to oblige the metallurgical operators present on the territory to use a percentage of renewable energies in the framework of their respective productions, thereby leading them to take charge of the Yaté dam again, thus solving the problem of Enercal’s deficit, and developing other sources of clean energy such as photovoltaic, wind, or even the construction of new hydroelectric power stations backed by the central chain such as the Ouinné for example.

Still in the mining sector, it will finally be necessary to quickly study and finalize the offers of the six buyers concerning the northern plant with a view to a rapid restart of its activity, with or without the approval of the State. Mining expertise remains, to this day, a local competence.

Thus, in the short term and by simple country laws, it is  nearly 170 to 200 billion  of new revenues which could be quickly reinjected into the country’s economy in addition to the obligatory aid from the State intended to cover the damage due to the manifest failure of its sovereign competence which is public order, which should be passed on in subsidies and not in loans, in compensation for the overpayment of the 400 billion paid by New Caledonia to the mainland as part of the “fund for French people abroad” file.

The APROFED association