ANZ
Bank : December 1999
ANZ
has in the last decade demonstrated its long-term commitment to
the Pacific region by taking up increased equity positions in the
commercial banks around the region and introduction of computerised
systems to fully integrate the Pacific based banks into the
international network of the ANZ. ANZ has also started to introduce
ATMs into the Pacific, after having successfully trialing the
ATMs in Fiji. Recently, ANZ has acquired the largest commercial bank
in American Samoan, the Amerika Samoa bank. These contributions of ANZ
to the development of the financial markets in the Pacific deserve
recognition in the Pacific. Therefore BizConnections Biz
Awards would like to further encourage ANZ to continue their present
strategy of taking a serious commitment to the development of the
financial institutions in the Pacific.
Pacific
Forum Line : September 1999
Formed by selected Pacific Island countries
in early 1970s, the Pacific Forum Line has been a vital Pacific enterprise in the
maintenance of regular shipping connections within Pacific and with the main trade markets
in New Zealand and Australia. Although the enterprise encountered a number of
difficult financial years at the beginning, it has managed to sustain its services through
the strong support by the shareholding island countries and their development partners.
The creative financing structures of the Pacific Forum Line through blending of bilateral
and multilateral grants with commercial loans and shareholders funds have been critical in
the financing of the developmental shipping routes which have the life lines for
most of the small island countries.
The Pacific Forum Line has progressively shifted away from indirect subsidised shipping
routes to a more transparent costing and funding system using grant aid to fund the
subsidised services.
Bizconnections has selected Pacific Forum Line given its contribution to the development
of future trade and investment for the Pacific island economies. Pacific island
enterprises will continue to rely on the services of the Pacific Forum Line in the push to
step up their export activities.
USP MBA Programme:August 1999
The USP MBA Programme was launched in
1995 to respond to a need to provide a post graduate programme to better prepare personnel
in the business to operate within the unique coomercial environment in the Pacific.The
first permanent Director of the MBA Programme was Professor Fullerton.
Enrollment has risen from 28 in early 1995 to over one hundred in 1999. Nearly thirty
percent of the students are female. The Programme is noted for its emphasis on regional
relevance, its distictinctively American style of interactive teaching, and its highly
qualified lecturers, who regularly include distinguished visiting authorities from the
United States. Classes are now offered in Nadi/Lautoka as well as Suva. The
Programme’s eighty graduates to 1999, include citizens of Australia, China, Fiji,
India, Kiribati, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom.
Citizens of Brazil, Canada, and the USA have taken classes. Most Programme alumni work as
mid-to-high level civil servants and private sector managers in the USP region countries,
but graduates have taken positions in Australia, New Zealand, and the USA
Bizconnections has selected the USP MBA Programme as the enterprise of the month because
it has been successful in demonstrating that a quality service can be successfully created
within the Pacific.
In a recent external review, the MBA Programme has
been commended for achieving international-level excellence and strong regional relevance
by two internationally prominent evaluators, Professors Philip Williams of the University
of Melbourne in Australia and Stanley Shapiro of Canada’s Simon Fraser University.
The two professors had personally inspected the Programme earlier this year.
Professor Williams applauded the
Programme’s clear focus on training professional managers, whose needs are quite
different from those of purely academic researchers. Compared with many competitor MBA
programmes, he asserted, "the USP programme offers instructors with superior academic
credentials, far more contact time with faculty members, a curriculum that is more
demanding, … and far greater opportunities for co-operative learning from one’s
fellow students."
Both professors were impressed by the caliber of the USP
MBA students and graduates. Their average age of 34 makes them older than students at
other top MBA programmes internationally, notes Professor Williams, yet essentially they
are "similar to MBA students at the world’s top schools." Professor
Williams explains, "The students are highly motivated, they work hard at their study
(averaging around 60 hours per week); they are responsive in class; they are willing to
challenge their instructors and each other; and they give excellent presentations."
According to Professor Williams, "I have been very
impressed by what the USP MBA Program has achieved in only a few years. It is and
extraordinary testament to the USP and to the staff of its MBA Programme that it has
started to offer a high quality international programme while it receives little
subsidy." Professor Williams applauded the Programme’s clear focus on training
professional managers, whose needs are quite different from those of purely academic
researchers. Compared with many competitor MBA programmes, he asserted, "the USP
programme offers instructors with superior academic credentials, far more contact time
with faculty members, a curriculum that is more demanding, … and far greater
opportunities for co-operative learning from one’s fellow students."
Professor Shapiro found that: "The MBA offering at
USP is superior. …This MBA programme is not only taught in the South Pacific but
deals appropriately with the problems of managing in the South Pacific. Indeed the USP MBA
has moved more quickly in the direction of an appropriate local focus than have most other
MBAs servicing developing areas."
Professor Shapiro further noted that, "Though only
in operation for a few years, the programme appears to have had a very positive effect
both on the professional lives of its graduates and on the organizations at which both
past graduates and present students are employed. Much of the programme’s strength
and its subsequent positive effect on careers seems due to its …heavy emphasis on
team building and group projects."
Both experts commended the regular use of distinguished
visiting professors.
June-February
1999 Enterprises
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