Trade & economy

Interview with Martin Dihm, EU Ambassador to the European Union in Papua New Guinea Newly-appointed Ambassador of the EU in PNG, German national, Martin Dihm, has previously held senior posts in the EU’s delegations in Barbados and Abuja, Nigeria. From 2001, he was on the trade desk and EPA negotiator for the Pacific and from 2005, Deputy Head of Unit in the EU’s Directorate for Trade dealing with relations and EPA negotiations with Eastern and Southern Africa and the Pacific.

Two massive Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) projects to commercialise the gas resources of PNG’s Southern Highlands and Western provinces have opened the floodgates for an unprecedented economic boom seen in the rash of new hotels, supermarkets and entertainment centres in the capital, Port Moresby.

The NGO ActionAid has brought to light the potential negative effects on developing nations of the EU’s renewable energy policy.

Its report, ‘Fuelling Evictions: Community Cost of EU Biofuels,’ documents how 20,000 people in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodland are facing eviction from land where an EU company plans to grow jatropha to manufacture biofuels.

The hot issue of the windfall tax In the wake of the ACP Ministerial on Natural Resources and the recent communication from the European Commission on establishing a strategy in this field, our report from Zambia and South Africa looks at the tricky task of taxing mining. Alfred Sayila reports.

The new support programme for microfinance institutions (MFIs) has just been launched. The main aim is to strengthen the capacities of more than 100 MFIs in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

With €53.8 billion (0.43% of its GDP), the European Union’s official development aid (ODA) reached a record level in 2010, up by €4.5 billion on 2009. “The EU remains incontestably the world’s leading donor,” declared Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, while admitting that it has failed to honour its pledge to jointly allocate 0.56% of its gross domestic product to ODA in 2010, rising to 0.7% in 2015. In absolute terms, the sums allocated were €14.5 billion less than promised (1).

Faced with the increased incidence of wars in certain ACP Group regions, often reducing their development efforts to zero, conflict prevention was recognized as a priority in the cooperation agreements signed in Cotonou in 2000 between the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and their principal partner, the European Union. These provisions assumed particular importance with the entry into force of the European External Action Service on 1 December 2010.

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.

Interview with David Matongo, Co-chair of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly After 24 years as chairman, or managing director, David Matongo continued to work in business whilst launching a political career in his native Zambia.