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Vanuatu is a Pacific Island neighbour of Australia, New Caledonia,
Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Zealand. It enjoys a stable political
environment as well as great beauty and friendly people. The government
strongly encourages foreign investment.
Jim and Lesley Batty operate several business operations in Vanuatu.
They have identified opportunities which have a high rate of return
for investors, and which also deliver substantial benefits to the
local economy.
The project selected is the Summit Estate Mini-Plantation Project.
This is an agro-forestry plantation, with sandalwood as the "star"
plant grown. Sandalwood grows naturally in Vanuatu, and has been harvested
for commercial purposes for over 200 years. This project is based
on growing Vanuatu sandalwood in plantations, capitalising on experience
gained over the past 10 years.
The objective is to plant 40ha per year, around 56,000 sandalwood
trees. The project is sub-divided into Mini-Plantations of approximately
1,000m2 each, or 400 Mini-Plantations to make up the 40ha. At the
time of writing, some 800 Mini-Plantations have been taken up by investors
since 2005.
This project shows an estimated internal rate of return of 15% per
year to the investor. Each 12 Mini-Plantations creates employment
for one ni-Vanuatu person.
Commencing in July 2008, Mini-Plantation owners can also enjoy visiting
the Summit Estate Gardens. Summit Estate is located only 15 minutes
from Port Vila.
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