Comments

Hi Greg, Yes of course these issues are far more complex than simply raised in the article, and I think the ones you have touched on are probably the three most important things I didn't discuss, so thank you. The new Government looks hopefully like we'll have stability at last, and yes the road is nearly unusable at the moment, but works should start soon to fix it. Let's just hope it lasts longer than two years... And as for staffing yes, it is a huge need, and one that requires (in my opinion) far easier access to labour (skilled and unskilled) from overseas in the short-term, and then a complete rethinking and transformation of the education and skills pathways in the medium to long-term. But what that looks like and how to achieve that is obviously far beyond this platform I'll be in touch with you separately for a further catchup to discuss some of these issues. Thanks

Thanks for the response, Dr Forsyth. I completely agree with you that there needs to more discussion about peace, but I am not entirely convinced that PNG does not acknowledge that it has a conflict problem. Yes, law and order solutions may not always be the answer for problems relating to conflict however I would think that options to amplify dialogue and debate can still be utilised without coming up with a whole new strategy which will take time and resources. Happy to discuss further with both you and Dr Dinnen 🙂

Great job indeed done by the authors. Writing here from Indonesia. Yes I personally believe the public transport system should be handled by the city authorities and NOT privatised.

Very well written article Peter, you are 100% correct. Myself and my wife (expat Kiwis) live in Vanuatu and have done so for the last 2 years, prior to which we alternated every 2 months between NZ and Vanuatu. We live on Moso Island and have a business on Efate. It's one thing to say "get Tourists back here" but there are many more complex issuse that you may not have seen on your recent trip. There are various problems, but I will choose just 3 to touch on for now. 1, Government. A big problem here is the unstable government situation we have had over the last 5 to 6 years. This has led to a lot of inconsistency for business on various levels. It's very hard to do business here when the rules are always changing with a new government. 2, Transportation and Roading, while the standard of transportation has been raised, the roads haven't been maintained, what used to be a 30-35 minute drive from Port Vila to our business in Havannah will now take you an hour in a taxi or a box bus. You used to be able to drive around Efate going to 4 or 5 different attractions in one day with the tour operators, now it's only 3 (no difference in cost though). 3, Staff So many business owners i talk to say staffing is there biggest weakness. They take staff on train them to a reasonable level where they are getting a good return on their investment only to have them poached away by Kiwis and Aussies to pick fruit and vegetables as seasonal workers promising them mega bucks when its only minimum wage. The issue here is that the country they go to and the business they work for benefit financially and economically far more than the seasonal worker or Vanuatu. Please don't get me wrong, we love living here and the people, the culture and the island lifestyle is simply amazing. I would be more than happy to discuss this further and in more indepth detail if you are intending to do follow up articles.

Thank you for raising this excellent point Dr Hukula. The reason PNG needs a peace strategy is because it has a major, growing and largely unacknowledged conflict problem. The problem is typically presented as a 'law and order' problem requiring 'law and order' solutions. As grassroots activists, local experts and researchers have been pointing out for years, these 'law and order' solutions tend to beget more 'law and order' problems and ignore underlying causes. Instead of burying peace building strategies within the myriad body of existing and largely failed or neglected strategies, lets put it out front where, at the very least, it can serve as the basis for dialogue and debate .

Travelling between islands is still problematic. Our family have just taken over the biggest cacao project in Malekula which was formerly managed but now abandoned by the government. My wife has been stuck in Port Vila for week after 3 cancelled flights to Malekula. She is presently on a boat now to Malekula. When we asked the Department of Trade for help in finding export markets for our cocoa, they said we have to find our own. It’s depressing.

PNG is already struggling to implement its plethora of strategies and plans. What value add would a peace strategy add? Could peace building not be factored into existing strategies and plans?

As a couple who visited Vanuatu frequently, we don't see much happening to entice people back . I know it's very difficult for them as a lot has been destroyed. Resorts that are operating aren't really tempting people to return. Santo we would consider as an alternative to Vila at the moment especially Aore which is beautiful. Having said that, we'll return at sometime for sure. We love Vanuatu and it's people.

I am trying my best to get a birth certificate done in order to process passport to obtain a student passport. Is there an online application that I can fill in? If so, can I have the link please?

I need information on sponsorship.

"an apparent lack of “alignment” of these programs with (US) national interests. " Yet no mention of the world's poor in terms that highlight the disparities between them and us: Last year, the World Bank reported: "Global poverty reduction has slowed to a near standstill" "Today, almost 700 million people (8.5 percent of the global population) live in extreme poverty - on less than $2.15 per day. Progress has stalled amid low growth, setbacks due to COVID-19, and increased fragility. Poverty rates in low-income countries are higher than before the pandemic. Around 3.5 billion people (44 percent of the global population) remain poor by a standard that is more relevant for upper middle-income countries ($6.85 per day), and the number or people living on less than this standard has barely changed since the 1990s due to population growth." What happened to our being part of the wealthy west ? Sharing some of that wealth with the poor of our world ? And it is "our world" - not a country to be hidden away behind tariff walls. The GATT/WTO negotiations over many decades and agreements were intended to share the benefits of international trade, especially those who contributed to that trade from what used to called "developing countries". I bought a a light all-weather jacket recently - to my delight, it had been made in the Ukraine. Some wealth shared where it was needed.

I wish to compliment John Conroy for his insightful analysis of the life and work of Dr Fred Fisk. I had the privilege of working closely with Fred in the period 1984-1987 when I was the Economist on the Pacific Regional Team (PRT) assisting DFAT (then AusAID) in the Pacific Islands Region (PIR). I truly look forward to reading the complete book which John has produced on Fred. I will keep my current comments very brief: 1. Curiously, while I worked closely with Fred on many assignments, I never did get a sense as how to best access his theoretical work. 2. Certainly, he seemed best known for his notion of "subsistence affluence". I personally found this very useful in the context of Tuvalu; there, the concept of "unemployment" had to be understood in a special way. For example, if people of working age did not have formal employment which paid a wage, then generally they could readily take up subsistence employment - fishing, tending to poultry and minor crops (including coconuts and pandanus), making handicrafts, weaving mats, gathering shells, repairing and making shelters, and so on. Some of these activities could lead to a cash income, albeit minor (such as sale of handicrafts). Hence, it would be misleading to use the concepts of employed/unemployed with their conventional meanings in a Western sense. 3. Another of Fred's concepts was that of dividing the PIR countries into three categories, namely "fully furnished", "partly furnished", and "unfurnished", based on the availability of land, water, forests, mineral resources, and so on. In this context, Fiji for example could be considered as fully furnished; Tonga being much smaller might be considered to be partly furnished; and the atoll countries of Tuvalu and Kiribati would be generally considered as unfurnished. I do not think John covered this matter in his two blogs, but he may well have done so in his book. Or possibly John was not overly impressed with this somewhat subjective insight, and in this respect, I would be inclined to agree with John. 4. Some observers viewed Fred as a very "dry" and hard-hearted economist. As I saw it, the truth was precisely the opposite. Dr Fisk was person who emphasized fully with the people in the economies he studied, and his intentions in his work were to always aim to improve the economic well-being of the inhabitants of these countries based on a sound economic analysis of their respective situations. Colin Mellor 10 April 2025