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.
The two new players in Papua New Guinea’s TV industry this week began selling their set top boxes as they launched a total of 54 new free-to-air and pay channels.
Papua New Guinea has fallen two places in the latest World Bank Group assessment of the ease of doing business in world economies, released last week.
Last week’s elections in Fiji are ‘credit positive’, according to the Moody’s rating agency, after the leader of the 2006, Commodore Frank Bainimarama was sworn in this week as a democratically-elected prime minister.