Energy poverty and access to electricity in the Pacific

Energy poverty is widespread in the Pacific. It is estimated that 70 per cent of households in the region don’t have access to electricity and 85 per cent don’t have access to clean cooking energy

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Tokelau conference on rogue fishing

Experts to review strategy on MCS, IUU Officials for the Pacific’s leading forum for high-level fisheries dialogue, the Forum Fisheries Committee head to Tokelau this month for an in-depth look at current and

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Data holds the key, says SPTO

Regional tourism body, the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) wants tourism data to be accurate and made available on a timely

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Pressure on Communal Ownership

The story goes that when a western visitor new to the Pacific asked an islander why individual property ownership was so hard, the islander asked a counter question that left the visitor scratching his head. “Can

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Logging industry cleans up its act in Solomon Islands

‘Cowboy’ operators worry registered firms In a world that’s becoming increasingly environmentally-friendly, logging is a dirty word. So much so that even commercial banks, conscious of the growing

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Gloomy outlook for the Pacific

Rapid strides in pharmacology and the medical sciences in the latter half of the twentieth century has seen the near total elimination of several diseases and ailments. Many of these had taken a heavy toll on vast human

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Banking woes continue to plague Nauru

Uncertainties force banking downgrade Uncertainties in initial assessments on Nauru Island were behind the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s decision not to establish full commercial operations or a community bank as

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Growth for whom?

No political system has succeeded in eradicating inequality at any time in the history of humankind. Whether it is the many monarchies of the past couple of millennia, dictatorships of the past and present centuries,

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Chinese yuan, PNG kina open new market of riches

It’s become the Pacific’s 2nd largest donor A new wave of splurge spending by Chinese in the Pacific and Papua New Guinea’s incredible leap into high economic drive with a mid-year opening of LNG

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Whispers

Fire without the engine …. Residents of Port Vila are up in arms about the absence of the familiar red fire engines when it comes to attending to fire calls in the Vanuatu capital. The engine is reportedly parked

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Parties to Nauru Agreement loses CEO

The Pacific is losing one of its most prolific tuna negotiators who has been instrumental in negotiating greater returns for tropical purse seine fishery. Parties to Nauru Agreement (PNA) Chief Executive Officer Dr

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Senator Brett Mason

Australian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs firms up relations with Fiji After her first meeting with Fiji’s leader Frank Bainimarama in Suva in February, Australia’s Foreign

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