New investment plan for Nauru

[Stacey King]

Pacific Island Trade & Investment News & Events > News: New investment plan for Nauru

Pacific Periscope: 24 March 2011

Photo / Marek Blaszczakiewc

24 March 2011

Can Nauru regain some of its past glory? Not long ago, the tiny Micronesian island in the central Pacific Ocean was the world’s richest country in per capita income terms, thanks to its rich phosphate deposits.

At one time, the country of just 10,000 people even had three of its own passenger jet aircraft. But the country was unable to manage its post phosphate mining phase well and has seen great hardship in the past few years, though there have been serious attempts to revive secondary phosphate mining with some success – even some exports to countries like India.

Now the Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility has announced a plan to support the Government of Nauru in preparing a National Infrastructure Strategy and Investment Plan for the next 5-10 years. The plan contains an infrastructure stocktake, a need and gap analysis, a prioritised list of infrastructure investments and a funding strategy. The plan is to be finalised at the end of this month.

The private sector is expected to have a role to play in the country’s infrastructure revitalisation project.

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