The message from the New Caledonia Business Lunch in Sydney, Australia, on 4 November was that there are plenty of opportunities for international service providers in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
Our Region
While the number of work permits Papua New Guinea has issued to Pacific Islanders has quadrupled in the last ten years, Pacific workers still make up just one per cent of the total foreign work force in the Pacific’s largest economy. But that may be about to change.
Figures presented by the Investment Promotion Authority at the PNG Advantage Investment Summit show a ten-fold increase in investment from foreign companies in Papua New Guinea over the past decade.
Asian Development Bank analysis showing just how vulnerable Pacific nations are to natural disasters, but what can be done to better manage the risk? Wayne Dorgan from leading Papua New Guinea insurer Pacific MMI calls on disaster co-ordinators in the region to consult more closely with the insurance industry.
Pacific economies are expected to grow an average of 9.9% in 2015, as ‘positive external flows outweigh the impacts of recent disasters’, according to the Asian Development Bank’s Pacific Mid-Year Review.
China’s economy has promising prospects even as it adapts to a ‘new normal’ stage of its economic development. So what impact will a lower Chinese growth rate have on Papua New Guinea? Business Advantage PNG asks three regional analysts.
Papua New Guinean tourism operators flew the flag in Australia last weekend at the South Pacific Tourism Exchange at Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre. Robert Upe reports visitor arrivals are expected to rise, due in part to cruise ships improving tourists’ perceptions of PNG.
For the last six years, officials from 14 member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum have been negotiating with Australia and New Zealand to set up a free trade agreement, known as PACER-Plus. The Pacific’s Chief Trade Adviser on PACER-Plus is Ghanian-born Australian, Dr Edwini Kessie, who tells Business Advantage PNG that labour mobility and the future of development assistance are two key stumbling blocks.
David Morris is the Pacific’s new Trade Commissioner to Beijing. He talks to Business Advantage PNG about the changing nature of China’s economy and the trade and investment opportunities for the Pacific Islands that can arise from being part of China’s new ‘Maritime Silk Road’.
Pacific leaders have been the recipients of largesse from India’s Prime Minister and China’s President, who met in Fiji last week. Meanwhile, a new ANZ report details the increasingly close links between China’s aid and its investment in the Pacific.