Minister defends PACER Plus Regional deal in sight
WITH a month to go before regional governments sign a broad trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand, there are niggling doubts over whether every country will support the deal. Fiji and Papua New Guinea have
MSG’s coup de grace? Melanesia cracks up
WILL the controversy surrounding the appointment of a new director general of the Melanesian Spearhead Group be its coup de grace? The question is being posed as first Vanuatu, and now Papua New Guinea, the former being
CHASING THE BIG DREAM
PACIFIC ISLAND PLAYERS underpaid and overworked PHYSICALLY powerful young men have become Polynesia’s highest profile export. In a bittersweet trade, youngsters who dreamed of playing professional American
MSG
THE Melanesian Spearhead Group is headquartered in Port Vila, Vanuatu in a two storey building that was built and gifted to the MSG by the Government of China. It was founded from an informal meeting of leaders of Papua
Time for regionalism
REGIONAL tourism operators will gather on Australia’s Gold Coast this month to showcase the best there is to offer in the Pacific. The event offers opportunities for more than 80 hotel operators, airlines, national
Kiribati reforms; Free education, corruption probe, pay rise
THE new government of Kiribati last month announced sweeping changes in the country’s education, health and social welfare policies that will see free education up to year 12 in the whole of the country. The major
PNG court rejects detention centre Is Fiji next
WITH the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court ruling that the Manus Island refugee processing centre is illegal, Australia may be forced to look to other Pacific islands to house 800-odd residents. Australia’s detention
Islands reach out to visitors
WITH a 12 per cent growth in its tourism industry in 2015, Samoa will use its recent Tourism Expo and a national initiative to drive arrivals higher this year. Fresh from the Samoa Tourism Expo, a high-level delegation
Tribute to godfather of Pacific music Sounds of Sevesi
SEVEN months after becoming the first Tongan to be inducted into New Zealand Music’s Hall of Fame, Wilfred Jeffs, who went by the stage name Bill Sevesi, passed away, aged 92,,on April 23. When the news trickled