Samoa
The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) ended on 13 May in Istanbul with a new 10-year Programme of Action that sets the goal of halving the number of LDCs by 2020.
There are currently 48 countries – 33 in Africa, 14 in Asia, plus Haiti – that meet the conditions to be considered members of the group of least developed countries: an annual per...
The South Pacific island nation of Samoa is to jump forward in time by one day in order to boost its economy by bringing it closer in line with Australia and New Zealand. Currently, the island is 21 hours behind Sydney. From 29 December it will be three hours ahead.
This is not the first time that the island has changed time zone – almost 120 years ago it swopped to facilitate trade with...
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-...
The first time many Samoans found out about the tsunami that hit the south coast of Upolu Island (the island where Apia, the capital of Samoa, is located) on September 2009 was through a call made from one of the survivors to the radio station. "My house is gone, this is unbelievable," the survivor cried.
Throughout the recovery operation, mobile phones were the lifeline for many in...
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...
As the global economy picks up, new economic opportunities are being scouted by the islands, particularly in the private sector.
Though the effects of the global financial crisis in the region were not felt as severely as they were in other parts of the world, the fragile island economies did feel some pressure due to reduced tourist numbers and a dip in inward remittances – the islands...
The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) ended on 13 May in Istanbul with a new 10-year Programme of Action that sets the goal of halving the number of LDCs by 2020.
There are currently 48 countries – 33 in Africa, 14 in Asia, plus Haiti – that meet the conditions to be considered members of the group of least developed countries: an annual per...
The South Pacific island nation of Samoa is to jump forward in time by one day in order to boost its economy by bringing it closer in line with Australia and New Zealand. Currently, the island is 21 hours behind Sydney. From 29 December it will be three hours ahead.
This is not the first time that the island has changed time zone – almost 120 years ago it swopped to facilitate trade with...
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-...
The first time many Samoans found out about the tsunami that hit the south coast of Upolu Island (the island where Apia, the capital of Samoa, is located) on September 2009 was through a call made from one of the survivors to the radio station. "My house is gone, this is unbelievable," the survivor cried.
Throughout the recovery operation, mobile phones were the lifeline for many in...
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...
As the global economy picks up, new economic opportunities are being scouted by the islands, particularly in the private sector.
Though the effects of the global financial crisis in the region were not felt as severely as they were in other parts of the world, the fragile island economies did feel some pressure due to reduced tourist numbers and a dip in inward remittances – the islands...
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