Fiji
Except for the Solomon Islands, where a coup d’état lasted only a few weeks, Fiji is the only Pacific island state to have experienced military coup d’etat and, despite unanimous condemnation by the international community, the head of the army, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has ruled the country since December 2006. Paradoxically, while postponing elections until 2014 he is...
A four-year European Union-funded project is targeting increased visitors, foreign exchange and jobs for the Pacific states of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of countries. Financed under the regional budget of the 10th European Development Fund (2008-2013), the ‘Pacific Regional Tourism Capacity Building Programme’ is due to lift off before the end of 2011. ...
Bar the occasional shock, in terms of arrivals numbers, there has been virtually uninterrupted growth in the tourism sector since the 1950s, according to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), a specialised United Nations agency. The sector creates employment - especially in small island nations - and triggers development in other areas of the economy; construction, agriculture and...
As we went to press, the latest toll of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami of 11 March 2011 in north-east Japan was between an estimated 18-24,000 people reported either dead or missing with many more made homeless. It has put the vulnerability of the area in the Pacific known as the ‘Ring of Fire’ firmly in the spotlight. This 40,000km2 area tracing the Pacific Rim in a horseshoe-...
Sparse populations spread across wide swathes of the world’s largest ocean resulting in poor communications between them have held back movement of the region’s goods and people and slowed economic development and growth.
The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) has recognised such impediments to development. One of its earliest moves of the PIF was the Pacific Forum Line,set up by Pacific...
A new framework for Pacific-EU cooperation is expected to emerge in the coming year. It will target adaptation to climate change but also aims at “high-impact” development aid, announced EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, during his recent visit to the region.
“This will mean cementing our global partnership on climate change, speaking with one voice in the...
Samoan national, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, became Secretary General of the Secretariat of the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in August 2008. Formerly a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, he was his country’s Ambassador in various locations and was previously Samoa’s Attorney General and senior legal adviser with the Commonwealth Secretariat...
Pacific Island countries and the EU have launched a joint initiative to mobilise all donors to help the region deal with the effects of climate change.In a first step, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General, Tuiloma Neroni Slade and EU Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs in December 2010. They have agreed to work together...
A gathering of European academics in Brussels on 22 November is the first step to creating an EU research network for the Pacific to bring fresh thinking to policy-making on such issues as; social and gender issues, climate change and security and stability.
“The Pacific is important for us: it has fewer than 10 million inhabitants but 13 votes in the United Nations which, added to...
Migration hotspots in the Pacific : Migration to towns brings risks and benefits in equal measures to Pacific islands
Those who move from rural to urban areas from the outer to the main islands in the Pacific are largely young people in search of employment. “The net effect of this is overcrowding, as land is in limited supply in many Pacific Island countries. Increasingly there is slum...
Except for the Solomon Islands, where a coup d’état lasted only a few weeks, Fiji is the only Pacific island state to have experienced military coup d’etat and, despite unanimous condemnation by the international community, the head of the army, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has ruled the country since December 2006. Paradoxically, while postponing elections until 2014 he is...
A four-year European Union-funded project is targeting increased visitors, foreign exchange and jobs for the Pacific states of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of countries. Financed under the regional budget of the 10th European Development Fund (2008-2013), the ‘Pacific Regional Tourism Capacity Building Programme’ is due to lift off before the end of 2011. ...
Bar the occasional shock, in terms of arrivals numbers, there has been virtually uninterrupted growth in the tourism sector since the 1950s, according to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), a specialised United Nations agency. The sector creates employment - especially in small island nations - and triggers development in other areas of the economy; construction, agriculture and...
As we went to press, the latest toll of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami of 11 March 2011 in north-east Japan was between an estimated 18-24,000 people reported either dead or missing with many more made homeless. It has put the vulnerability of the area in the Pacific known as the ‘Ring of Fire’ firmly in the spotlight. This 40,000km2 area tracing the Pacific Rim in a horseshoe-...
Sparse populations spread across wide swathes of the world’s largest ocean resulting in poor communications between them have held back movement of the region’s goods and people and slowed economic development and growth.
The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) has recognised such impediments to development. One of its earliest moves of the PIF was the Pacific Forum Line,set up by Pacific...
A new framework for Pacific-EU cooperation is expected to emerge in the coming year. It will target adaptation to climate change but also aims at “high-impact” development aid, announced EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, during his recent visit to the region.
“This will mean cementing our global partnership on climate change, speaking with one voice in the...
Samoan national, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, became Secretary General of the Secretariat of the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in August 2008. Formerly a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, he was his country’s Ambassador in various locations and was previously Samoa’s Attorney General and senior legal adviser with the Commonwealth Secretariat...
Pacific Island countries and the EU have launched a joint initiative to mobilise all donors to help the region deal with the effects of climate change.In a first step, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General, Tuiloma Neroni Slade and EU Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs in December 2010. They have agreed to work together...
A gathering of European academics in Brussels on 22 November is the first step to creating an EU research network for the Pacific to bring fresh thinking to policy-making on such issues as; social and gender issues, climate change and security and stability.
“The Pacific is important for us: it has fewer than 10 million inhabitants but 13 votes in the United Nations which, added to...
Migration hotspots in the Pacific : Migration to towns brings risks and benefits in equal measures to Pacific islands
Those who move from rural to urban areas from the outer to the main islands in the Pacific are largely young people in search of employment. “The net effect of this is overcrowding, as land is in limited supply in many Pacific Island countries. Increasingly there is slum...
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