Digicel chief upbeat
Digicel’s Chief Executive Officer in Fiji, Darren McLean, expects big changes in the television market with his company’s entry in television industry. He talks to Islands Business. ISLANDS BUSINESS: How
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Drought fears grip Palau; Islands extend state of emergency
A PROLONGED drought blamed on the El Nino weather system has dropped water levels to an even critical threshold at the remaining reservoir that the National Emergency Committee (NEC) fears that without rain the
Be disaster prepared
FIJI was battering up for Tropical Cyclone Zena as we prepare to put this edition to bed, exactly 45 days after Category 5 Winston destroyed homes, villages and islands in eastern, central Fiji and the north-western
The power of names
NAMES have “mana.” They are powerful. We use names everyday to identify individuals, places and things. We therefore take for granted that they simply exist. We often forget that names were given, and the
Whispers
MIRACLE or mirage It’s making big news in Samoa with media reports about a young woman with stigmata, which in Christian tradition claims body marks on her body correspond to those left on Christ’s body when
Tonga’s race against time
Political row at centre of Pacific Games delay WITH less than three years to the Pacific Games 2019, Tonga is 18 months late in its preparations. This is despite Papua New Guinea’s pledge of $USD35 million –
Enter the dragon
THE need to boost national economies through foreign business investment is not lost on any Pacific island country. Talks in Brisbane last month saw the region’s leaders focusing on the need for a regional
PNG crackdown on bad Chinese traders
PAPUA New Guinea has seen a series of anti-Chinese protests and riots in recent years, driven by the increasing number of Asian nationals taking over small businesses. The latest anti-Chinese aggression, though less
FANTASY ISLANDS; Once polluted, unusable space is now Tuvalu’s future.
IN the South China Sea, the Chinese Government has now built up a string of artificial islands that are robust enough to hold aircraft bases and give their regional neighbours a serious case of the jitters. Millions of
VANUATU tax haven opens doors
THE opening up of the pre-independence tax haven in Vanuatu did not, of itself, bring in the large numbers of Chinese immigrants the country hosts today. As one of Vanuatu’s two colonial masters, the British
Palau puts in place measures to control Chinese ‘takeover’
TWO years ago the number of Chinese tourists that travel to Palau barely reached 30,000, but by 2015, there were 87,058 visitors from China and the glaring change was that this market have edged out the other markets
Kanaki parties debate their future
THEY came from the north, the South and the islands of New Caledonia. Delegates from the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) gathered at Ko We Kara on 5-6 March, for the first congress of
US’ ‘corrosive influence’ on the Pacific
Clinton emails show disquiet over US corruption, incompetence CORRUPTION, neocolonialism and incompetence. Those sorts of attacks usually come from critics of the United States but the latest release of emails from
Small islands BIG secrets
Leaked documents reveal billions in bribes, tax dodging TEN different Pacific Island states have been linked with billions of dollars in shady offshore banking and tax haven deals, in two major media exposes.
Digicel acquires Sky Pacific – with restrictions
TELECOMMUNICATIONS giant Digicel has acquired ownership and direct control of the region’s largest satellite-based television network, Sky Pacific. Formal acquisition, from 1st April 2016, came six months after
Will PACER Plus go ahead without largest economy?
PNG key to trade deal THE big question after PACER Plus talks in Brisbane this month will be simple – Do Pacific nations intend to carry on with this regional agreement without Papua New Guinea? On the first day
US reserves comment on arms deal
RUSSIA’S arms deal with Fiji, breakdown in US fish treaty negotiations, ban of Facebook in Nauru, leaking of confidential embassy cables and growing Chinese influence in the region were the key issues of
Fiji’s rice producer welcomes Korean investor
Fiji’s sole but struggling rice producer, Rewa Rice Limited has welcomed the entry of Grace Roads Limited, a South Korean investor built on Christians’ apocalyptic principles, into the local rice industry. A
Unsung heroines
Helen Hakena: Bougainville, PNG: HER village Ieta was burnt to the ground on the 28th of May 1990. The entire village had to plea to neighboring communities for safety and security. Young women were taken and
Our FUTURE is in the PAST
TROPICAL Cyclone Winston’s destruction of property, infrastructure and life in Fiji has raised serious questions about the preparedness of Pacific island countries for large-scale disasters. The Category 5 cyclone
TC Winston is bad news
MONSTER storm Winston goes down in history as the most destructive cyclone ever to be recorded in the southern hemisphere. Forty-four fatalities, thousands homeless and a FJ$1 billion repair bill, the road after Winston
Ramrakha, a son of Fiji
Former Fiji politician KC Ramrakha, ran foul of the Indiandominated National Federation Party during the faction fighting of 1977. He speaks to ISLANDS BUSINESS about politics, sugar and life. PART TWO The kind that