Saturday 28 March: Stand our ground, keep it local

Dear Editor,

Good on the Vice President of the Demo Party Makirere Poila for making a stand against the invasion of foreign companies to the Cook Islands to undertake work that can actually be quite easily carried out by local companies.

Surely there is no need for some rocket scientist overseas company to both design and supervise the construction of a cyclone center on Pukapuka island.

Come on guys on the evaluation committee, we are not talking about the construction of a highly technical building such as a nuclear powered utility but simply a well constructed building placed on stilts whereby the locals can gather in the event of potential cyclone that may be heading in the direction of Pukapuka.

If anything, I trust that the same stand will be made by the Demo Vice-President should this government proceed to go ahead with taking out a $50 million loan for infrastructure work. There is no question that local companies such as T&M Heather are more than capable of undertaking a great deal of this work so no need for the Finance Minister to buckle to the Chinese and agree for them to bring a whole swag of Chinese workers here for this work.

It is about time that the people of this country stood their ground and said no more to further debts and workers from China.

Keep it local

(Name and address supplied)