Results for Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands need to protect their deep sea minerals, Tonga's Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Samiu Vaipulu told a Pacific-ACP States Regional Workshop on Deep Sea Minerals Law and Contract Negotiations that opened at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre, in Nuku'alofa today on March 11.

Dr Vili Fuavao will take up a new appointment as the Deputy Regional Representative for Asia and Pacific at the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, on13 March 2013.

New Zealand visas were issued to a group of 36 Tongan seasonal workers under the New Zealand Recognised Seasonal Employers program, and they left Tonga on Thursday February 21, after their police records were re-checked and cleared by Immigration New Zealand and Tonga Police.

Tongan seasonal workers under the New Zealand Recognised Seasonal Employers program are affected by the NZ immigration minister's recent decision to hold Tongan visa applications that require police clearances. A first group of 35 workers who were due to leave for New Zealand on Monday remain on stand-by in Nuku'alofa. Another 120 workers who are scheduled to leave over the next two weeks in the height of the harvest season will also be affected by the new rule.

Australian researchers from Queensland University’s “Pacific Agricultural Research for Development Initiative (PARDI)” are leading a vegetable research project know as PGS (Participatory Guarantee Systems) in Fiji and the Solomon Islands to help identify ways to strengthen food production and manufacture in the region.

An e-commerce project that started offering free online booking development to small-medium sized accommodation businesses in Tonga two years ago is now in full swing across 11 Pacific Islands.

Multi-million grants from Australia and New Zealand were handed over to the Vice-Chancellor and President of the USP, Professor Rajesh Chandra at the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, Suva on 30 January.

Tonga is among five Pacific nations to adopt a Pilot Catastrophe Risk Insurance Program that was launched in Sydney, Australia on 18 January.

A group of 15 new US Peace Corps volunteers for Tonga were sworn in today, November 9, by the US Ambassador to Tonga HE Frankie Reed, at the Vakaloa Beach Resort in Kanokupolu. Peace Corps also announced that its country directors in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji are to be replaced by a a Regional Director.