Melanesian leaders failed to attend the 2nd Pacific Islands Development Forum on the Fijian resort island of Denarau last month. Conspicuous in their absence were Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and his Solomon Islands and Vanuatu counterparts Gordon Darcy Lilo and Joe Natuman. In fact the only Melanesia leader present was the host, Fiji’s interim Prime Minister Rear…

Russians, Chinese target visa loop-holes the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands has received a five-year extension of a critical programme allowing it continued access to some 10,000 foreign workers up to 2019 for its recovering economy. But it still faces other key immigration issues, most of which are waiting United States Congress actions. Among these issues is the CNMI’s…

More trouble for the multi-million dollar tuna industrial zone in Madang Province, on the northern shores of Papua New Guinea. Work on the proposed Kina 212 million (AU$90m) project has been put on hold because China’s Export-Import Bank has put a freeze on its K190 million (AU$80m) loan. The bank says that the loan freeze has been triggered by a…

One of the more significant announcements during Prime Minister John Key’s visit to three Pacific Island countries last month is that New Zealand will allow more seasonal workers from the islands to work on the country’s farms. Numbers are likely to rise from the current 8000 to a shade more than 10,000 in the next couple of years. This will…

Fiji’s possible return to the fold of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s preeminent inter-governmental organisation of independent nations of the Pacific, has been much in discussion in recent months. Fiji was suspended from the Forum in May 2009, after it failed to meet the deadline set by the regionl group to hold democratic elections in the country. Fiji’s interim…