KOSHIBA: President is wrong. There is economic crisis in Palau

Koshiba in an interview on Wednesday stressed that people in Palau are facing a “big” crisis contrary to what President Remengasau is saying that there is no crisis in Palau.He said the economic crisis happens because people don’t have money to spend and don’t have money to pay for their utility bills due to the high cost of utilities, fuel and other essential goods.Koshiba said some business sectors already starting to feel the crisis by cutting the operation hours.Senator Koshiba said WCTC is now cutting hours by closing the establishment by 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.“I agree with them (business sectors) if they complained about the high cost of utility bills. The government office is not paying their utility bills for the past weeks and they owe PUC more than $2 million but how come their utilities are not cut off? It’s the private sectors that are subsidizing the government but the government is not making any efforts to cut expenditures or cost,”he said.“Everyday you will see the Ministers driving an expensive cars but it’s the government that is paying for their fuels,”he added.Koshiba said the government is spending $700,000 a year for the fuels and that includes the government boat and vehicles.“That’s a lot of money and this waste of government money and this corruption must stop,”he said.Koshiba said he will welcome all investors and will implement a fair policy to all interested investors.“ A lot of investors had showed interest in investing a business here in Palau but they got tired of waiting because until now they can’t get a license. I know three companies who tried to apply for license and waited for six months but nothing happened so they left and now they are in Vietnam,”he said.“That’s the problem because FIB (Foreign Investment Board) is incompetent. They don’t take actions of the applications. Only those who have close connections with the government are able to get a license. We have to create a fair atmosphere wherein interested investors will be treated equally and fairly. If we need to reject an application there must be a valid reason why. We need to explain why their application was rejected.”he said.He said if he will be elected he would welcome all investors because Palau needs investors to generate revenues.“As long as it brings honest revenue to Palau. Palau people are actually hungry for good things,”he said.