PINA

-Fiji is meeting with regional countries to explore potential quarantine-free travel. Minister for Tourism Faiyaz Koya said hey have had some discussion with New Caledonia and Tuvalu on this possibility. “We have had an introductory meeting with New Caledonia and Tuvalu’s health officials to try and explore some quarantine-free travel and of course there are a number of variables to consider...

For more than twenty-five years, deep in the remote and inaccessible tropical forests of Papua New Guinea, a huge industrial complex has been operating; foreign owned companies have been bulldozing tracks, felling huge trees, cutting logs and dragging them to the coast to be loaded onto ships and sent overseas. According to official records, since 1993, at least 78 million...

ANZ will extend its fee waiver until September 2021 for online foreign currency payments made from Australia and New Zealand into 10 Pacific countries. Latest figures show the value and volume of transfers made by ANZ customers to the Pacific has increased substantially on the same period last year. In February 2021 ANZ Australia and New Zealand customers sent a combined...

The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence in Fiji has recommended to Parliament to ratify the 2005 Agreement establishing the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). “Fiji is the only country that has yet to ratify the 2005 Agreement and since it will be hosting and chairing the PIF Leaders Summit in 2021, it would be timely for Fiji to ratify...

Health facilities in the capital city of Papua New Guinea are facing manpower crises as a direct consequence of the exponential increase in the Covid-19 cases. National Capital District (NCD) health authority acting chief executive officer Ken Wai said the Gerehu Hospital, which was the only major hospital apart from the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH), was closed because many...

The Speaker of the Bougainville parliament, Simon Pentanu, has confirmed that he has Covid-19. Pentanu said he was now into day 5 of 14 days in isolation. His infection comes as part of a surge in Papua New Guinea of Covid-19 infections, where there were now over 3,000 cases and at least 36 deaths. In the autonomous region of Bougainville, the number...

Around the world, people of faith are calling on their leaders to close the massive gap between what is required to limit global temperature rise and actual climate change commitments by governments and financial institutions. Most religions hold core to their beliefs the sacredness of the earth and God’s creation, and so they are calling for world leaders to address...

Former Cook Islands Prime Minister and Manihiki MP Henry Puna is looking forward to assuming the top Pacific Islands Forum role after the High Court dismissed the charter flight case that saw him facing fraud charges. Incoming Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Henry Puna is expected to take on his new role on 17 May. Puna, the current Manihiki...

The growing gap between the number of vaccines being given in rich countries and those administered through COVAX is becoming “more grotesque every day”, the head of the UN health agency said on Monday. “In January, I said that the world was on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure unless urgent steps were taken to ensure equitable distribution of...

Climate change has hit the world’s oceans hard, UN weather experts said on Monday, in a call for lifesaving monitoring and early warning services that were interrupted by COVID-19 to be ramped up again, to protect shipping and coastal communities at risk. In an alert that warmer seas helped to fuel a record Atlantic hurricane season last year, along with...