Last week Friday, two visitors from Dubai were invited to speak at Palau Wave Radio hosted by Ngirmang Moses Uludong. During their meeting, they touched on different subjects such as religion, culture, government, and business developments. Both being successful in their own right, gave their perspective on what Palau can do to improve the economy.
They both agreed that in order to attract investments from foreign countries, Palau needs to be able to make quick decisions when it comes to their rules and regulations. Hadi, who comes from a family that specializes in Agri-Business had this to say “You need to set up your government to be able to adapt quickly to changes because the business world and the practices around the world is changing quickly and a government needs to look at its economy as a company and be able to make decisions quickly to deal with competition.”
He further states that a lot of the countries around the world are competing with one another in order to attract investments. In order to deal with the competition, he says that by having laws that protect foreign investments and by making it simple so that there are not a lot of complexity for investors to worry about.
The concern for a lack of money was brought up during the talk show then Majdi, a successful hotel owner said that “In order to get money you let others invest their money. You need to change your laws. You have two very important things, you have a country that is beautiful and you have the ability to change the laws. Lots of companies will come and do everything for you.” He goes on to say that having outside help can be an advantage when it comes to investments. “They want to have mutual benefits. If they want to make money then they are making money with you and if they want to develop and benefit out of that then they are developing your country.”
Additionally, culture became the topic of discussion which Hadi responds that it is possible to make laws that will benefit the island economically and to be culturally sensitive. He used Maldives as an example saying that they are Muslims so they don’t allow visitors to bring alcohol to the country however once you go to a place like a resort then the alcohol is provided for the guests.
Moses also puts in his thoughts as well and he agrees with the both of them. He sees that Palau needs to be a little more flexible with changing their laws in order to keep with the times. (Telbakes Yano)