"We’ll see if we were well insured" : in New Caledonia, after a week of riots, traders take stock of the damage
THE “return to order, before any dialogue”, in New Caledonia. To try to get out of the crisis, Emmanuel Macron is going there, from Tuesday May 21. The head of state must install a “assignment” more than a week after the start of the riots which greatly weakened the economic situation in the archipelago. 400 businesses and businesses were destroyed or damaged, according to the report drawn up Tuesday by the public prosecutor of Nouméa. Franceinfo spoke with some of these economic players on site who sometimes lost a lot.
Thierry Lebiez is the boss of several companies in Nouméa – with 60 employees – located in Dukauss, the main industrial zone in New Caledonia. An area that was particularly destroyed during the riots: “I lost 3,000 m2 dock. It’s just dock, it was real estate. I was only an owner and I had tenants, there was the BUT store in this case, from which I rented, which was destroyed, reduced to ashes in a commercial complex. It began burning on Tuesday morning and was looted and re-attacked several times during the week. Every day they came back. Every day they broke. We are at 3, 4, 5 million euros.” This is his first assessment of material damage, for the buildings that concern him.
What he is waiting for now is news from his insurer. But nothing very reassuring, according to him: “We are going to see if we were well insured, we are going to see the reaction of the State, the aid that we can expect from the French State since it is still a breach of our security. Our lives have been put at risk. in danger, those of our families, of our employees We were forced to defend ourselves, lock ourselves in, barricade ourselves in our buildings. Thierry Lebiez says he does not know when he will be able to reopen and how many employees he will be able to keep. He is already talking about probable layoffs and talking about an economic catastrophe.
Few people contacted on site comment on the arrival of the President of the Republic because everything is very uncertain. Even among employees like Rym, project manager for a management software publisher with 25,000 users in the Pacific. His business was reduced to ashes in the first days. In fact, she lost her job even if that’s not quite how she wants to see things: “We all instantly realized that we were going to have a monumental job. But I also think that we will emerge stronger from this ordeal.
“What we want is a desirable future for all. Now, what remains for us to do is prepare for the day after”, said Rym. This involvement of France alongside the Caledonians is welcomed by certain entrepreneurs. Others simply say “expect real support from the State for the economic world” on the spot.
- For more: Elrisala website and for social follow us on Facebook
- Source of information and images “francetvinfo“
