Islands Business
Pacific fighting the plastic plague
Visit the Plastic Adrift website and you can place a little rubber duck on a spot of your choice and see how plastic pollution spreads. Place your duck just off the east coast of Australia, and the simulation shows
Economy 2020: A rocky start
The Coronavirus outbreak, the Australian bushfires, continuing US-China geopolitical and trade tensions and damage caused by Tropical Cyclones Tino and Sarai have seen 2020 get off to a difficult start in our region.
Smart Aid Not More Aid
An honest and critical appraisal by donors, recipient nations and other stakeholders is critical if the region is to take advantage of every donor dollar and show growth that truly impacts Pacific people’s daily lives
2020: The year for a PNG anti-corruption commission
The Chairman of Transparency International PNG, Peter Aitsi, expects the Marape government to establish an oft-promised anti-corruption commission to be set up by the end of 2020, paving the way for an improvement in
FNPF challenges…and regional opportunities
The Fiji National Provident Fund continues to be concerned by low levels of savings by its members on retirement and the need to extend its coverage to the informal sector. The FNPF says that in 2019, 66 per cent
Back to the drawing board
For the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), COP25 in Spain was viewed with great optimism and hope. A number of issues and developments contributed to that frame of mind. However, the Conference proved a disappointment. In the
Teti triumphs in Twickenham
Fiji’s die-hard rugby followers did not know whether to be more shocked by their B team’s win against some of the world’s star rugby players in England last November, or by the realisation that they knew very
New Fiji: Our Communal Farm
There I was on my balcony, settled in comfortably on an old couch, surveying my neighbourhood while savouring my first “bilo” (bowl) of “kava” for the day. In the midst of the normal Western heat, I felt that at
Fiji mourns loss of retired UN diplomat
Fiji mourns a trail-blazing diplomat today. Ambassador Satya N Nandan died at his New York home on Tuesday. Nandan chaired the drafting of the United Nations Convention of the Sea that gave Fiji and other islands of the
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Every week Mission Pacific’s bottle buy-back centre in Suva is visited by a wide variety of Fiji residents and businesses with very different motivations for bringing in their PET bottles. Some of them are driven by
InDepth: Meeting the new guard
SPC’s New Director General Stuart Minchin What are his first impressions, why does he think his new role is “an opportunity to serve” and how will ensure SPC’s members met their people’s needs in the
Whispers
More manoueverings at USP, will Fiji go to this year’s Festival of Pacific Arts, agency head expense accounts are under scrutiny. Get Island Business to learn more at…
Transnational crime, climate change, trade feature in NZ-Fiji talks
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has shared more details of how her country plans to support Fiji in fighting transnational crime. In a statement to media during her official visit to Fiji today, Ardern
Building together: Civil society a key partner in delivering Pacific infrastructure
Building quality infrastructure in the Pacific means going beyond a narrow focus on hard assets, to thinking about the ways that new infrastructure, and accompanying services, will contribute to lasting development
Israel wants Pacific’s backing at ‘biased’ UN rights council
Times of Israel/Pacnews: Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin has told Pacific Island leaders in Fiji that he hopes they will stand with Israel against what he claims is a strong anti-Israel bias on the United
Israel’s President to meet Pacific leaders in Fiji next week
Pacific leaders will meet Israel’s President, Reuven Rivlin, in Fiji on 20 February, 2020. Israel’s Ambassador to the Pacific, Tibor Schlosser has told Pacnews that the visit builds on the deep relations Israel
Making every dollar of development aid worthwhile
By Sadhana Sen Is the Pacific an aid-dependent region making endless requests for development assistance but with little care for how effectively and successfully this aid is used? What should be done by Pacific
No “Ocean Super-Year” without marine regions
This new decade starts at a critical moment for the future of the ocean. There is strong agreement among experts that decisions taken in the next ten years will be critical for the future of the ocean. The current
What has trade protection done for PNG manufacturing?
2019 was meant to mark the end of the PNG government’s 20-year Tariff Reduction Program (TRP), introduced in 1999 and designed to reduce tariffs gradually to a uniform 10% across the different tariff categories. In