LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Niue: New Zealand
built 657 days ago
The official currency of Niue is the New Zealand dollar (NZ$1.40 equals U.S.$1; 2005 annual average). Most of Niue's budget is supplied by aid from New Zealand. Claiming the Niueans had ineffectively used the aid... New Zealand steadily decreased its funding from U.S.$5.5 million in 1991 to $1.9 million in 1994. The Niuean government is the largest employer. However, because of the drop in New Zealand funding, employment in the public service has dropped to 250 from a peak of 650. A few families have small businesses; others are engaged in agriculture.
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Niue is one of the largest coral Islands in the world. Its economy depends largely on New Zealand, which is a three-hour flight. At present, three important sources of revenue for the Island are the food processing of local crops, sale of collection postage stamps and tourism. However, the main efforts are directed towards the tourism and the financial services industry. Niue is not very well known yet as an offshore jurisdiction. It ... presents the considerable advantage to offer total confidentiality and anonymity.
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Niue is a 260-square-kilometer raised coral atoll. Culturally and linguistically it is very similar to Tonga. Niue is located at 19° S and 169°50′ W, 385 kilometers east of Vavau, Tonga. There were 6,000 people on Niue and about 5,500 Niueans in New Zealand in the early 1980s. Niuean is part of the Tongic group of Austronesian languages. At present, only the narrow coastal fringe is inhabited and exploited; formerly, the island was more evenly settled.
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Since the Government of Niue owns and operates most of the computers on the island, about 90% of the email going through the system has originated in government departments. However, a good portion of this is personal email from parents and other relatives in Niue to the thousands of Niueans working and studying in New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the world.
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Niue's remoteness, as well as cultural and linguistic differences between its Polynesian inhabitants and those of the rest of the Cook Islands, have caused it to be separately administered. The population of the island continues to drop (from a peak of 5,200 in 1966 to about 2,100 in 2002) with substantial emigration to New Zealand, 2,400 km to the southwest. It is self-governing in free association with New Zealand since 1974, with Niue fully responsible for domestic affairs, and New Zealand asked to retain responsibility for foreign affairs and defense.
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Niue is a developed self-governing nation, maintaining a 'free association' with New Zealand, and has a tiny population of just under two thousand people, most of whom speak English as well as their native Niuean. All modern facilities are found on the island - a modern and comfortable hotel, school, shops, bank, hospital, power-generating station, port and government house - and yet the island offers a wonderful refuge from the stress and noise of everyday life elsewhere in the world. The pace of life is slow and relaxed, the weather very comfortable and the people extremely friendly. Crime is almost non-existent, sanitary conditions are excellent and communications with the outside world are reliable.
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