French overseas minister François-Noël Buffet (centre) with a bipartisan New Caledonia Congress delegation in Paris, 30 September. Photo: Supplied
French Overseas minister François-Noël Buffet will travel to New Caledonia next week, from 16 to 18 October.
Buffet, who was recently appointed to the position as part of new French Prime Minister Michele Barnier's cabinet, said the visit comes in support of all players in New Caledonia in the wake of the crisis triggered by riots that broke out in the French Pacific archipelago on 13 May.
Barnier, during his inaugural speech of general policy before the French National Assembly, also signalled a new approach towards New Caledonia.
He also announced that the provincial elections initially scheduled to be held before 15 December would now be postponed to November next year.
This was regarded as a way to give local politicians more time in order to reach a comprehensive agreement on New Caledonia's political future, including the sensitive electoral roll subject.
During his three-day stay, Buffet plans to meet and hold talks with New Caledonia's key players, including in the political, economic and social areas.
"I look forward to meeting our compatriots of New Caledonia and to reaffirm our government's will to bring fast and pragmatic responses to the crisis this territory is going through," Buffet said in a release.
He said one of his objectives was to "pursue dialogue" and "encourage reconstruction".
As part of Barnier's recent announcements, several top French leaders are also scheduled to travel to New Caledonia in the next few weeks.
This includes the Presidents of both French Houses of Parliament, Gérard Larcher (Senate) and Yaël Braun-Pivet (National Assembly) who will travel to the Pacific as part of a joint mission to "restore dialogue".
Barnier also announced last week that French President Emmanuel Macron is planning to receive all of New Caledonia's political leaders in Paris for a round table sometime in November.
Barnier said earlier this week he would also travel to New Caledonia "when the time comes".
Latest figures published
Since 13 May, New Caledonia has been gripped by an insurrectional crisis that has so far caused the death of 13 people (including 11 civilians and two French gendarmes), various levels of damage to over 800 businesses that have been burnt and looted, the loss of about 20,000 jobs and total damage estimated at 2.2 billion Euros.
This has torn New Caledonia's economic and social fabric bringing the territory to its knees and to the brink of collapse, according to a release published on Monday by New Caledonia's statistical institute ISEE.
ISEE states that in the private sector alone, close to 6000 jobs have been lost, compared to pre-crisis levels.
During the same period, another "19,330 persons received partial unemployment benefits. This amounts to 29 percent of the workforce", it said.
In the same document, another impact of the crisis was a sharp decrease in the extraction of nickel ore and the production of nickel products.
ISEE quotes last year's August figures for the export of nickel (US$193 million) compared to August 2024 figures (US$36.7 million).
