The head of the Chinese company planning to set up the South Pacific's largest fish farm at French Polynesia's Hao atoll says he wants to partner with a UN agency for the project to conform with high environmental standards.
Hao atoll Photo: Google Maps
Wang Chen of Tahiti Nui Ocean Foods made the suggestion in an interview with French Polynesian journalists in Shanghai.
He said he would visit Tahiti in two weeks to meet the government to advance the project, which he has repeatedly deferred and altered over several years.
Mr Wang says the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation could be a partner as the Hao fish farm could serve as a pilot project.
The project was initially forecast to cost $US1.5 billion and eventually employ 10,000 people but it has been modified and downsized.
But he now says that once the fish farm has been set up it might develop into the biggest in the world.
He says he would like to expand aquaculture in the Tuamotus and supply farmed sea food to the US and Europe as well.
Chinese delegation visiting Hao atoll, June 2014 Photo: Photo courtesy of Govt of French Polynesia