PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

By Giff Johnson

MAJURO, Marshall Islands (Marianas Variety, Dec. 29) — A new United States-funded agreement with the Marshall Islands is expected to breathe life into the slumping construction industry by the middle of 2004, according to government officials in Majuro.

A Compact of Free Association that was signed into law by President Bush the week before Christmas will inject $13.9 million for construction work — nearly all of it for public schools — and an additional $1.4 million for maintenance work during 2004. That amounts to 36 percent of the total $42 million annual funding the U.S. is providing to the Marshall Islands government under the new 20-year funding package.

Local contractors said they have had very little work — and no big, multi-million dollar projects — in the past year, with only a handful of small, ongoing projects funded through an Asian Development Bank loan and other small construction grants.

A plan of action for implementing the new Compact’s construction and capital improvement and maintenance funding went to Cabinet this week for approval, said Compact office executive director Robert Muller Friday.

Once approved, it will set in motion development of detailed designs and a bidding process that he hopes will happen during the first three-to-four months of 2004, with construction work kicking into gear by next June, when the summer holidays begin for schools in this central Pacific nation.

"We want to see contractors mobilized by summer," Muller said. "It’s the optimal time for construction at schools."

The ministries of education and health will receive all of the $13.9 million construction funding set for the current fiscal year.

Over the three year 2004-2006 period, an average of $13.5 million per year is set to be spent on construction for education and health projects.

The U.S. is providing $700,000 annually for infrastructure maintenance and the Marshall Islands is matching it so that maintenance funding will now equal about 10 percent of capital improvement spending each year, Muller said.

The new Compact will inject $13,990,817 into capital improvements for education and health during the current fiscal year. This includes $10 million for new classrooms and other facilities at four public high schools, and $1.2 million for the largest public elementary school in Majuro, the capital.

At least two of these are multi-year construction projects, with Marshall Islands High School slated to receive $4.7 million in construction funding in 2005 and Rita Elementary School scheduled to receive $1.2 million in 2005.

Majuro Hospital is to receive $1.2 million for new laboratory and other diagnostic equipment, while new dispensaries on remote outer islands will be built with $490,000. The hospital at Ebeye Island, which is the bedroom community for Marshall Islanders who work at the Kwajalein missile testing range, is to receive $570,329 for improvements, while $429,671 is to be spent to upgrade housing for medical staff.

Marianas Variety: www.mvariety.com

Copyright © 2003 Marianas Variety. All Rights Reserved