Year after year, earthquakes and tropical cyclones have battered a number of small islands countries in the Pacific region, some to such a degree that thousands of lives are lost and millions of dollars in damages are incurred. They have become regular visitors to the region, their tendency to disrupt ...
After years of effort to get Fiji tuna caught using longline fishing method to carry MSC certification, the first taste for European consumers carrying the coveted label will hit their stores in June. This follows the launch of the Fiji albacore tuna range by global seafood supplier Anova Seafood at ...
It is ironic that at a time when public consensus is gaining momentum for greater women’s rights around the region, men are being accused of horrific crimes and sorcery against hapless women in the region’s most populous nation.
A surge in sorcery and witchcraft related murders in Papua New Guinea has drawn widespread condemnation from international groups such as the United Nations and Amnesty International. A growing culture of insecurity and fear has been blamed and there are concerns it will impact on the country’s economic development.
Over the next few weeks, political groupings formed under the new Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding and Disclosures) Decree 2013 will be applying to register as hopeful new political parties aspiring to contest the next national election, scheduled for September next year.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) has turned another page in its political history when it formally installed a new governor and lieutenant-governor within five hours after Benigno R. Fitial resigned as governor on Feb. 20.
With less than two years or up to January 2015 to finish his term of resigned governor Benigno R. Fitial, newly-sworn-in Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Governor Eloy S. Inos said his administration will reprioritize and continue ongoing efforts to beef up the tourism economy rather than bring ...
A mere $5 a month from the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) as pension annuity payout for some of its members is almost a joke. But this has long been the harsh reality for the nation’s only superannuation fund that caters for the country’s working population.
New Caledonia’s nickel industry is being transformed as new joint ventures and exports to Asia challenge France’s control of the strategic minerals sector.
New Caledonia’s next Congressional elections will not be held until May 2014, but it seems like the electoral campaign has already begun.
Now that the apocalypse some believed would happen on December 21 has come a cropper, we can now be bold to make some prognosis for this year in our neck of the woods. Here are a few glimpses from Islands Business' crystal ball.
Two separate high-profile and still unsolved murder cases involving a bartender in February and a couple in December, the pension agency’s filing for bankruptcy, a public hospital and a utilities agency still under a state of emergency, restoration of regular 80 work hours bi-weekly for government employees, thousands of foreign ...
Both Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) are at the midway point in the 20-year Compacts of Free Association with the United States, and what is clear is that both nations are still dependent on the US government for a majority of their budgets.
Iliesa Delana’s gold medal comes 62 years after the Pacific islands first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, also won by a Fijian, Mataika Tuicakau, who won gold in the shot put and silver in the discus at the 1950 British Empire (now known as the Commonwealth Games) in Auckland, ...
The London Olympics had just finished. Our medal hopes were dashed yet again, or so we thought. The Paralympics that followed barely rated a mention with little television coverage.
There is an unmistakable push by Papua New Guinea into neighbouring economies in the Pacific region to invest and operate businesses there.
On September 27, the EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states turned 10.
Could these be the twilight days of “regional integration” rhetoric in the Pacific? Where “regional integration” can truly move from being a political dream to a tangible state of free trade and free labour movement in the region?
A survey of trade within the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) member countries under the MSG Trade Agreement (MSGTA) had revealed a sharp increase since 2005, although there is still a heavy reliance on Australia and New Zealand.
If new Information Communication Technology (ICT) is best understood by Pacific Islanders as texting on mobile telephones, updating Facebook, checking e-mails, hashtagging on Twitter, uploading videos on YouTube or downloading music from the Internet, then, as the saying goes: ‘you ain’t seen nothin’ yet’.
Pacific Islands Forum leaders gather ing in the Cook Islands this month looking to pick up tips from their host on economic progress and a new political stability will find plenty to learn from during their time in Rarotonga.
It’s all happening in Rarotonga this month. When Pacific and global delegates begin jetting into the capital of Cook Islands later in August, the iconic ‘Kia Orana’ hospitality from the 42nd Pacific Islands Forum Meeting host will be centre-stage.
It was 6pm on a day in March 1996. And Kevin Riria Malopo, a landowner at Gold Ridge, Solomons’ only commercial gold mine outside the capital Honiara, remembers it well.
Joy, Peace, Progress and Prosperity; that men should brothers be, make nations see. Our Solomon Islands, our Solomon Islands—our nation Solomon Islands, stands forever more.
Gold discovery in Solomon Islands goes back more than 440 years. The yellow stuff was first discovered in 1568 when Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana de Neyra arrived at the major island in the nation, Guadalcanal, and named the group Solomon Islands after the King of Israel who had built ...
Pacific Islands delegates from Nauru, New Zealand and Niue were the first to arrive in Honiara for the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts.
If the mana in kava still packs a punch, it is sorely needed. The Pacific’s kava producing nations are engaged in yet another rescue mission to save once and for all the reputation of this commodity.
Pacific nations are largely reliant on aid, trade and investment from traditional partners like Australia, New Zealand, United States, France and Japan. But in recent years, there has been increasing interest in finding new sources of development assistance, economic and political support.
Sexual and gender-based violence is a huge problem in the Pacific region, affecting around two in every three women.
As the Marshall Islands moves into its 33rd year of constitutional government with a new President, it is facing a profound paradox: while donor aid per capita is high, virtually underwriting the economy of the nation, its economic, education, health and social indicators are among the lowest in the region.
As the United States fought its way across Micronesia during World War Two, it launched a strike against Japanese naval forces that could hinder the US advance on the Japanese mainland.
Forecasting the shape of the economies in 2012 is tough and particularly so given the volatile global markets.
With so many watershed decisions expected of Pacific Islands Countries in the coming months, the best advice one can offer for what to expect in the region in 2012 would be to “prepare for the worst while hoping for the best”.
For a small islands nation, Fiji has too many universities that are creating waste and un-necessary duplication of roles and courses, a Fiji-born lawyer and former diplomat has said.
