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.
Foreign investment in the Fiji economy is expected to return, following the first democratic election since the 2006 coup. Tourism, infrastructure and natural resources are three sectors expected to benefit, but economists and business leaders say that will depend on political and policy stability, as Kevin McQuillan reports.
New Caledonia is a unique territory in the Pacific region. With the second highest per capita GDP in the region, it is a prosperous first-world economy that possesses a level of development and infrastructure that would be the envy of most Pacific island nations, as Andrew Wilkins reports.
After years of relationship building, the BRICS nations-Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa-are setting up their investment bank. It’s a milestone for this strange mix of economies, but offers Pacific nations access to investment capital, says BRICS expert, David Thomas.
The creation and now the production of the LNG plant highlights the next major challenge facing Papua New Guinea: How to grow the non-mining sectors. Economist Dan Gay says the key is to grow the domestic economy, and the internet and service industries.