PINA

By Kishti Sen & Tom Kenny The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the Pacific islands has so far exceeded expectations in positive news for the region’s prospects of an economic recovery. In part, this is a result of assistance from the region’s development partners, in particular Australia and New Zealand. Fiji (the Pacific islands’ most populous country) aims to vaccinate 53...

Samoa caretaker Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi has assured the public in a special address Tuesday that there will not be a shutdown of Government services as there provisions in the law to continue funding public services despite the Parliament not sitting. Speaking on the eve of the new 2021/2022 fiscal year through a special announcement made through the Government’s...

The tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru has requested approval for deep-sea mining plans for a subsidiary of The Metals Co, giving the UN International Seabed Authority (ISA) two years to decide on rules for the new and controversial industry. Nauru President Lionel Aingimea notified the president of the council of ISA in a letter dated 25 June and seen...

Tonga civil society strongly opposes deep sea mining and reaffirms a total ban on all mining activities, saying the region including the kingdom needs to act. That position was made clear during the recent Pacific Blue Line webinar hosted by the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) and partners, a series that advocates against threats of deep sea mining. Between 2019 and...

Fiji has reported an even higher 312 positive COVID-19 cases and four related deaths Tuesday. Ministry of Health and Medical Services permanent secretary Dr James Fong says 17 of those cases are from the Western division: *Four are from the existing containment zones of Tramline and Qima Settlement in Nadi. *One is a prison officer from Suva in the Tavua prison compound,...

Papua New Guinea and Fiji are among several countries in the region going backwards in their fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and this is concerning, a New Zealand epidemiologist said. PNG has recorded over 170 deaths and more than 17,000 cases of the virus. In Fiji, 19 people have died and over 3,000 active cases in isolation. Professor Michael Baker, from...

The Supreme Court decision ordering Parliament to convene within seven days is a stepping stone for Samoa to move forward, political scientist Dr Christina Laalai-Tausa says. But the New Zealand-based Samoan political scientist and academic says the Court should have included a date in its judgement handed down on Monday. In an interview with the Pacific Media Network, Dr Laalaai-Tausa said...

A growing coronavirus outbreak in Fiji is stretching the health system and devastating the economy. It has even prompted the government to offer jobless people tools and cash to become farmers. The Pacific nation got through the first year of the pandemic without any significant outbreaks and just two virus deaths. But an outbreak of the highly contagious delta variant two months...

Transnational crime syndicates including those that work in the underworld market of money laundering would have been anxious over moves in the United Nations to add more teeth into its convention against corruption that first came into force in 2005. This came early in June in New York at the convening for the very first time of a...

The Faatuatua I le Atua Samoa ua Tasi – FAST party leader, Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa has embraced the Supreme Court decision delivered Monday. Mata’afa told the media that she viewed the decision as another chance given by the Court to follow the legal process of what should have been done in the normal process after any general election. “We see this...