The Pacific Plan was suggested by an Eminent Persons Group in 2003 to provide “an overarching strategy for the region”. It was agreed via the Auckland Declaration at a 2004 special Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) meeting and adopted a year later by PIF leaders. Its aim of “peace, harmony, security and...
Category - Pacific growth and regional integration
Pacific predictions: 2021
COVID continues As is the case the world over, the early part of 2021 will see no let up in the impacts of COVID-19 in the region. That is not to say that it will simply be ‘more of the same’ as we saw in 2020. The advent of vaccines will have a significant effect, and they are already being rolled...
PACER Plus: a third view
PACER Plus – a regional trade agreement between Australia, New Zealand and Pacific island countries – will do little to stimulate economic activity in the Pacific. However, Pacific negotiators have had some success lobbying Australia and New Zealand on labour mobility, and have shaped a relative...
PACER Plus: the case for
PACER Plus, a trade and development agreement including Australia and New Zealand and a majority of Pacific Forum Island Countries (FICs), presents important opportunities for business and government to drive economic recovery and regional integration. PACER (Pacific Closer Economic Relations) Plus...
PACER Plus: the case against
On 13 December 2020 the controversial regional free trade agreement – the Pacific Agreement on...
The Pacific Islands Forum leadership: who and for what?
Five nations from the region have nominated candidates for the position of Secretary General of the...
Cross-border trade: Indonesia and PNG
Informal cross-border trade (ICBT) between sovereign states may be illegal, but it is not...
Australia leaves Fiji to flounder
Fiji’s fiscal year begins in August, and the government brought down its 2020-21 budget in July...
How to get from response to recovery in the Pacific
As of 24 August 2020, six countries in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) had...
Australians support the Pacific travel bubble
There has been a fair bit of discussion about a potential Pacific travel bubble. That’s the idea...