A curious thing has been happening in the Pacific. Instead of running trade and investment road-shows in Australia, New Zealand or China, two Pacific Island countries have been courting investment from each other, observes Jenny Hayward-Jones.
Our Region
Indonesia and Papua New Guinea have ratified their double taxation treaty, in a sign of developing closer economic relations.
The Chairman of Advance Cairns, Cam Charlton, explains why the commercial ties between Cairns and PNG are going from strength to strength.
The Papua New Guinea Government plans to have a trade representative located in Jakarta from next year, as it seeks to boost trade and business links with neighbouring Indonesia.
Australia’s aid program will increase by 10 per cent or about A$500 million in the 2013-14 budget to a record AUD$5.7 billion—the equivalent of 0.37 per cent of gross national income (GNI).
Although gross domestic product (GDP) growth halved last year in the Solomon Islands, the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands’ (CBSI) 2012 annual report, released last week, makes encouraging reading.
Akamai’s quarterly The State of the Internet study has become a valued measure of the proliferation of the worldwide web over the past five years. Its latest edition, covering the last quarter of 2012, was released last week.
Mobile phone competition in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands is about to get tougher, after a deal which will see about US$250m (K550 million) in new funding for PNG’s second carrier, BeMobile, which will see it relaunched as Vodafone BeMobile.
Papua New Guinea’s gross domestic product is set to increase by 5.5% in 2013, according to the Asian Development Bank’s latest Pacific Economic Monitor, released last week. This is compared to growth of 9.2% in 2012.
The four-year feasibility study on Solomon Islands’ Tina River hydro dam project on Guadalcanal Island is nearing completion and a final report will go to government in September this year.