Business

According to countryaah, Palau’s business is largely based on financial support from the US, Taiwan and Japan. Despite this, the country has major financial problems, mainly as a result of a lack of investment in infrastructure and industry. In 1991, a major investment project for the construction of the island of Babelthuap was secured; among other things, it was planned to move the country’s capital there. The project, which is being implemented in collaboration with Japanese investors, is believed to have a positive effect on the country’s economy.

• According to abbreviationfinder, PW is the 2 letter abbreviation for the country of Palau.

About 80 percent of the country’s employed work in the service and service sector. In addition to the service industries, the industries dominate agriculture and fishing, mainly in the form of smaller self-catering units. More recently, the tourism industry has grown in importance and is now the most economically important sector. The country’s exports are mainly seafood, tuna and scrap metal.

Palau Geopolitical Atlas

The Republic of Palau is an island state located in the Pacific Ocean 500 km south-east of the Philippines. A former colony of the German and Japanese empires, Palau has been independent from the United States since 1994. The Americans took the island from the Japanese during World War II and, since 1947, ruled it under an international mandate from the United Nations. In addition to Palau, the mandate also included Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Of the former US-controlled territories, Palau was the last to gain independence, although in 1981 – after 55% of Palauans chose to remain independent and not join the Federated States of Micronesia – it had already adopted its own Constitution and in 1982 had signed the Free Association Pact with the USA. The long lapse of time between the signing of the Pact of Free Association and independence was partly caused by the dispute with the United States on the constitutional provision that prevented the use, testing, storage and disposal of nuclear material on the territory of Palau: this hindered the US interest in using Palau as a stopover in the Pacific. During the eighties, the same majority of the Palau population had expressed themselves, through a referendum, in favor of the Pact with the USA and for the modification of the Constitution, without however reaching the qualified majority (75% of the votes) required for the constitutional amendment. Only in 1993 was the requirement of a qualified majority transformed into a simple majority, paving the way for the adoption of the pact of free association and, therefore, for independence.

As a consequence of the Palau historical events, Palau’s foreign policy is characterized above all by the relationship with Washington, which, in the absence of a national army, provides for the defense and has the right to use the territory for fifty years from the date of adoption of the Pact.. The US has undertaken to guarantee economic assistance, as provided for by the same Pact: a contribution of approximately 700 million dollars until 2009. Furthermore, the citizens of Palau can freely enter the United States. In return, the US has gained unrestricted access to the island’s land and waterways for strategic purposes. In 2010 Washington renewed its commitment to help the country economically, with a budget of $ 250 million for the period 2010-24.

Palau, which does not recognize the People’s Republic of China, has an important economic and strategic ally in Taiwan. Palau is one of the 21 embassies still present in Taipei, and an important flow of aid, technology and tourists comes from Taiwan. Relations between the two countries were sealed in 2006, when Palau hosted the first summit between Taiwan and its allies in the Pacific (Kiribati, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Solomon Islands).

As for the political order, the president is the head of state and government and exercises executive power, while the legislative body is composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Delegates, composed respectively of 13 and 16 seats. During the 1980s, political life was troubled by various episodes of violence, including the assassination of a president, Haruo Remeliik, and the suicide of another, Lazarus Eitaro Salii, accused of corruption. However, since the early 1990s, Palau has stabilized and strengthened its democratic and multi-party system. From an economic point of view, the country faces a structural shortage of resources and dependence on international aid. Agriculture and fishing are subsistence, while tourism is the main source of income.

Visitors – who come mainly from Japan and Taiwan and who benefit from the expansion of the air network in the Pacific – traditionally feed about 50% of Palau’s GDP, which is double the average for the Pacific islands and among others. of the world. After the contraction of the sector, linked to the international economic and financial crisis, the 27% increase in the flow of tourists recorded in 2011 allowed the country to return to growth at sustained rates.