PINA

Thank you for the opportunity to once again address the Pacific Islands Forum. Your nations are confronting a dual crisis of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both threaten Pacific lives and livelihoods. If we follow the current path, the consequences of climate disruption for the prosperity, the well-being and the very survival of Pacific communities will be severe. I witnessed the impacts...

By Kemueli Naiqama, former Fiji Bureau of Statistics chief I note that there has been much debate since the release of the 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey on the Fiji Bureau of Statistics Website www.statsfiji.gov.fi. The Minister of Economy, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum made a statement regarding the report on Tuesday evening 14th September 2021. I wish to set the...

Pacific Islands Forum Leaders will meet with the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, in the margins of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly. The meeting will be held virtually 24 September 2021 and recommences the annual meeting after it was postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Usually a face-to-face session, the meeting will give Forum Leaders the...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday again urged eight key countries which have not yet signed or ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), to do so without delay. His request came in remarks to the latest conference to promote the treaty’s entry into force, which were delivered by UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu. The CTBT was adopted in...

The Marshall Islands president has urged world leaders at the United Nations to monitor geopolitical tensions in the Pacific. Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York via a recorded video message, David Kabua, said countries in the region were in the middle of a tug-o-war between 'the world's greatest powers'. “My own Pacific islands region faces a new emerging security...

Fiji has recorded 177 new cases of COVID-19 and four new deaths Thursday, increasing the total number of cases to 50,377 and 581 deaths since the outbreak in April. Permanent secretary for Health, Dr James Fong said there have been 170 new recoveries to report since the last update, which means that there are now 12,979active cases. “There have been 50,377...

Marshall Islands President David Kabua on Wednesday urged the UN to put an end to the “shameful silence” on Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN system. In his 15-minute pre-recorded address to the UN General Assembly in New York City, Kabua said that collective action is needed from all countries, stakeholders and people to ensure a resilient recovery from the COVID-19...

The sale of Westpac’s Pacific Business in Papua New Guinea and Fiji has been terminated. Kina Bank, in a market announcement Wednesday, con-firmed that both Westpac and Kina have agreed that the acquisition of Westpac PNG and Westpac Fiji will not proceed. The mutual agreement between the two commercial banks in terminating this sale came at the back of Independent Consumer...

The Climate Change Bill has been passed by Fijian parliament Thursday, marking a historic milestone in Fiji’s global fight. It is a comprehensive piece of legislation setting Fiji’s long term framework for mitigating the effects of climate change. It also mandates all government ministries action plans and national policies to be mindful of climate change, sets up clean energy requirements and...

In his speech to the high-level debate at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that it is time for mankind to grow up and take responsibility for the damage we are inflicting on the planet. The human species, said Johnson, is nearing the end of the adolescent phase of its evolutionary lifespan. He referred...