Women’s empowerment, COVID amongst career fair themes

The University of the South Pacific (USP) recently invited 30 employers to engage in a two-day exposition at its annual Career and Internship Fair. The event was organized by USP’s Career and Entrepreneurship Center,

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Women’s empowerment, COVID amongst career fair themes

The University of the South Pacific (USP) recently invited 30 employers to engage in a two-day exposition at its annual Career and Internship Fair. The event was organized by USP’s Career and Entrepreneurship Center,

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EU funds projects to “put food on people’s plates”

The European Union (EU) and the South Pacific Community (SPC) have launched three separate projects for the Pacific region focussed on cutting dependence on imported fuel and improving access to clean water and

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Strengths and stresses: economic responses to COVID

A prominent Australian economist says it is “scary” to see COVID-19 put at risk so many of the gains Pacific island countries have made over the last decade. Dr Jenny Gordon, the Chief Economist at the Australia

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COVID-19, the Pacific vuvale, and Pacer Plus

In a world devastated by COVID-19, enlightened leaders throughout the world have been thinking “out of adversity comes opportunity”, a wise saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin, among many others. Are

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‘A little bit of maybe’ on easier Australian terms for infrastructure debt and new aid

Australia’s Assistant Treasurer says in the post-COVID environment Canberra is willing to re-examine its policies including loan concessionality, debt consolidation and aid allocations to Pacific Islands nations but

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Remember Hiroshima…and the Pacific

In Japan, they’re called hibakusha – the survivors of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, and the bombing of Nagasaki three days later. Seventy-five years on, the survivors remember those days, and

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Hope on labour mobility

There’s good news for Vanuatu’s seasonal workers this week with the announcement that 170 workers will be able to go to Australia for the mango season. The workers will go to the Northern Territory in a pilot

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5-way race for Forum leadership

Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Dame Meg Taylor has declined to comment on the negotiations over her successor as head of the regional organisation, saying only “I have a job to do and I’m going to do it

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COVID-19, geopolitics and the Pacific Way – Dame Meg Taylor on the path out of our current crisis

The Pacific today faces three crises: a health crisis, an economic crisis and the ongoing climate crisis, and Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers will discuss all three when they meet (virtually) next week. As the

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ADB releases loans, grants for Pacific

The Asian Development Bank has announced a series of grants to Pacific nations. US$13.3million has been made available to 10 nations—Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau,

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Maclellan wins Sean Dorney Pacific journalism grant

Islands Business correspondent Nic Maclellan has been awarded the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific journalism for 2020. Established by the Walkley Foundation, the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism aims to

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The future of tourism

The end of breakfast buffets and garlanding on arrival. The rise of virtual travel experiences. The longing for solitude and simplicity. This is just a sample of the travel predictions being debated across the globe as

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PICTA: Picture of indifference

PICTA stands for Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement. It is a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiated amongst the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) to free up trade amongst themselves, under the provisions of ‘GATT

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COVID-19 affects the military

The Rim of the Pacific military exercise will proceed  from August 17-31 as an at-sea only event in light of COVID-19 concerns. The Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet will host the biennial maritime exercise.  The

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Pacific and M?ori students get support from AUT for access to online learning

As the tertiary sector in New Zealand prepares to shift online in response to COVID-19 restrictions, digital equity among students has never been more critical – an issue that disproportionately impacts on Pacific and

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Surviving the tsunami: COVID-19 and Pacific economies

Papua New Guinea’s Treasurer, Ian Ling-Stuckey says his country has not had “an economic crisis of such complexity or magnitude since World War 2.” Samoa’s finance minister Sili Epa Tuioti calls it a “social

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After COVID- what next for Pacific heath systems?

The Pacific’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak is likely to lead to increased scrutiny of health budgets and investments in our region. However first there are the very pressing questions of how to scale up response

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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

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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

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Pacific Trade Invest: 40 years in the Pacific

By Caleb Jarvis As a young boy growing up in Papua New Guinea (PNG), every Saturday Dad would drive up a windy road that overlooked 2-Mile settlement in Port Moresby, where people went about their daily lives. Looking

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Vanuatu eyes growth of DOT VU

VANUATU’S telecom regulator has welcomed the recent move by the ICAAN (Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers) to reassign to it the country’s country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) name DOT VU (.vu).

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Samoa Airways shelves maiden flight

THE worldwide grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 aircrafts has prompted the Government of Samoa to defer the commissioning of its new Boeing 737 MAX 9, which was to have taken place next month (April 2019). Recent

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Scanning the story of a fish

Imagine typing a code from a can of tuna into your phone as you stand in a supermarket aisle to find out where the fish in the can was caught, and the name of the ship which landed it. This is the vision of

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