PINA

Fiji has thrown open its doors today to tourists for the first time in 20 months, despite fears over the new Omicron coronavirus variant. The first Australian tourists touch down in the Pacific Island nation this morning from Sydney and daily flights from Melbourne will also begin today. All tourists must be fully vaccinated and show a negative PCR test taken...

The Marshall Islands is one of only a handful of nations never to have experienced a single case of community transmission of Covid-19. Its border closure in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 and later implementation of one of the world’s strictest quarantine programmes for people coming into this isolated island group have kept it Covid-free. Twenty-one...

Pacific kava farmers and producers will now have direct access to the Australian market under Phase Two of the Morrison Government's Kava Pilot, recognising the significant cultural and economic importance kava has for Pacific communities. From 01 December, producers will be able to apply to import kava for commercial purposes under the two-year pilot. The quantity of kava that can...

By Shailendra B. Singh, Folker Hanusch While global scholarship on the professional views of journalists has expanded tremendously in recent decades, the Pacific remains a blind spot, with sporadic research at best. For instance, the Pacific was not featured in the Worlds of Journalism study on 76 countries, perhaps the most ambitious undertaking in the field as yet. The lack of...

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has announced that New Zealand officers will now join three other countries: Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Australia in the latest intervention to support Solomon Islands following last week’s unrest in Honiara. In his address last night, Sogavare said: “We have opened our borders to allow our neighbours to enter to assist us. New...

The current troubles in the Solomon Islands must not be seen as an opportunity by Bougainvilleans to prey on the nation's instability says Bouganville President Ishmael Toroama. He said Bougainville has long shared traditional and familial ties with the Solomon Islands. However, the Solomon Islands remain an independent sovereign nation. “Many Bougainvilleans will have a vested interest in the situation in...

The head of the UN health agency has criticised “blunt” and “blanket” measures taken by countries in the past few days to stop the spread of the Omicron variant. In a statement on Tuesday, the World Health Organisation Director-General said that it was “deeply concerning” that Botswana and South Africa, where the new variant was first identified, were “being penalised...

There is growing unease over the French decision to hold New Caledonia's third and final independence referendum on 12 December. Pro-independence parties and groups decided last month that because of the pandemic, they will stay away from the polls. The decolonisation mechanism, at play for 30 years, will therefore reach its formal end without the full participation of the colonised people...

Fiji’s international borders will reopen today after almost two years. This has brought in much excitement for the people of Fiji as the first tourist flight lands at the Nadi international airport this morning. This first flight is a strong indication of our resilience to get through the pandemic and a ray of hope for many employees of the tourism sector...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Tonga have signed a US$5 million grant agreement to help restore and accelerate private sector-led economic growth in Tonga after the COVID-19 pandemic. The agreement, under the ADB's Tonga Economic Recovery Support Programme, was jointly signed by ADB Pacific Department Deputy Director General Emma Veve and Tonga's Minister of Finance, Tevita...