By Nazario Rodriquez Jr.
Horizon news staff

THE closure of the Pacific Savings Bank will forever be an issue that will not die, as far as we see it. We say this because there is no acceptable solution that would satisfy the depositors to recover their money, including interests, that is being offered.
As we see it, the $2,000 payout for every depositor is unacceptable. As we understand, if you have $5,000 account and you are allowed to get $2,000, then your $3,000 will just be gone just like that.
Why one has to suffer by losing a huge sum, especially if you are just an ordinary worker and plain earner because of the misdeeds of other people?
As of this time, it seems that there is lack of effort in running after those who were responsible in the mess.
I heard many stories of people who have deposited their money "wisely" with the PSB and who are now suffering because of the mess. One foreign worker has over $2,000 deposit from out of his meager income. The worst thing about the poor guy is that he was just recently terminated and sent home. Now, how can he recover his money?
Isn’t a stab in the heart to hear stories like this one?
One perspires just to earn for his family back in his homeland, then suffer again because of others’ crookedness.
What is to be done is to start running after those who were responsible for the PSB mess then give the depositors what is due to them.
Banks anyway exist mainly for profit. The safety and benefits of the depositors are just secondary or even tertiary or whatever you may call it. Correct us if we’re not wrong. Bank is business by the way and business is for profit.
Thus, speaking whether it is PSB, or Asian Development bank or World Bank, they’re all banks out to make profit. Just recently the Director General of the Pacific Department of the Asian Development bank spoke on the ADB’s goals to help development efforts in the Pacific and particularly in Palau during the Economic Symposium.
The ADB discussed issues that needs to be taken seriously such as for Palau’s need for a better structure of taxation, for better policies to wards the employment of foreign workers and encouragement of Palauans to return from abroad. This also includes the need for better policies for promoting private sector development.
The ADB said there is a need to introduce greater competition in the provision of services by state owned enterprises, new legislation to support business, lss onerous foreign investment regime, efficient financial sector, and more secured land tenure system.
The ADB said that reliance on public sector would not deliver future prosperity for Palauans. Palau, the ADB said, needs to develop its private sector.
From that standpoint, we could just see that what the ADB wants is for Palau to open the floodgate for more outside investors and for Palau to sacrifice some of its resources like the world famous clean environment to give way to development.
"The challenge for the future is to implement the bold policy reforms which have been talked about for so long. With those reforms, Palau can move on to a path of higher per capita growth and increasing fiscal self-reliance while preserving the traditional values that are rightly held very clear to the hearts of Palauans. But you do not need ADB to tell you this; … the real issue is to develop the political will to act." Other Economists’ point of views and so forth and so on.
We hope this would not mean that the ADB wants that the Palauan leaders, especially the lawmakers, must legislate laws to let foreign investors come in and pollute the environment.