Pacific

The $US7.3 million 'Impact programme,' to which New Zealand's foreign ministry will contribute about $US5.6 million, targets children, youth and their families in

Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Solomon Islands over the next five years.

ChildFund New Zealand's chief executive Paul Brown said he was "very pleased" 18 months spent developing a proposal for the ministry's "negotiated partnership scheme" had come to fruition.

There are new confirmed cases in Papua New Guinea, its tenth, and Guam, where a spike in cases has taken its total to 231.

The total number of cases listed by the WHO for the region is 352 - an increase of 38 cases since last week.

The WHO says although infection rates are slowing in the Pacific, the crisis is far from over.

While most Pacific Island nations have no recorded cases, the WHO says in many parts of the region, the pandemic is only starting to make its presence felt.

A survey by Pacific Trade and Invest shows 90 percent of Pacific SMEs report a decline in revenue since the pandemic hit and 92 per cent believe COVID-19 has negatively influenced the economy.

The outbreak has severely affected the operations and profitability of their businesses.

Not only that, those employed by the SMEs have lost  jobs as they could not sustain the impact of the outbreak.

Travel bans and restrictions on gatherings have also affected businesses in PNG and the Pacific.

With 10 active cases and quarantine botch-ups, it could be months yet before Australian and Pacific visitors are allowed in.

Meanwhile, Australian Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has warned its border will mostly likely be locked down until 2021.

That has businesses feeling nervous.

For Skyline - an adventure tourism business in Queenstown and Rotorua - the weekdays are the hardest.

Locals are visiting in the weekends and school holidays, but in between the luges and gondolas are quiet.

The meeting is part of the Secretariat’s work programme emanating from Forum Fisheries Ministers.  At their meeting held in Pohnpei, FSM in June 2019, Ministers agreed that this work would include:

(i) adaptive management regimes (ii) working with a consortium of partners to secure maritime boundaries in the face of sea-level rise and (iii) managing tuna stocks to support their contribution to the food security of Pacific Island communities.

The officials met via a virtual meeting this week to discuss ways to work through the global economic downturn.

The IFC's Thomas Jacobs told banking executives the economic fallout from the pandemic would not spare any nation in the region.

Mr Jacobs said his corporation was working to help financial institutions in the region continue to back businesses, in particular small and medium-sized companies.

He said it was important to keep these institutions operating and for that they needed finance.

Sara-Jane Elika, Interim CEO of PMN says: “Over the last year, our talanoa with Pasifika TV has focused on expanding the reach of our content given our close links with the Pacific region.

“The first opportunity came through the Pacific Divas National Identity showcase and now we look to a phased approach with our Breakfast shows being the first of many audio feeds to come.

“It is a very exciting time”.

Last week the organisation announced it had recruited the former Director of the Pacific Community, Colin Tukuitonga, to help their commitment to health equity for Pasifika.

Dr Tukuitonga has worked with the foundation in the past, helping design their Pacific Heartbeat programme.

Now that he has returned he has some big challenges to confront, beginning with high rates of smoking.

"It's declined in Pākehā folk and even in Māori but we still have pretty high rates of smoking," Dr Tukuitonga said.

Pacific peoples minister Aupito William Sio said the money will help with the recovery and rebuild from Covid-19, with the Pacific community among the hardest hit.

$80 million has been set aside for yet-to-be-announced education iniatives, while more than $30 million will go expanding skills, employment and education programmes that already exist.

$40 million will be spent on improving housing for Pacific families, and money has also been budgeted for culture and heritage funds, community content and the construction of a Fale Malae in Wellington.

According to Trevor Mallard, the Pacific parliaments programme, Tai a Kiwa, is a good vehicle for this.

Historically, Wellington has not had a good relationship with Pacific parliaments, said Mr Mallard, and had looked to the UK, the US, Australia and more recently to Asia.

He said it was why he had pushed for Speaker-led parliamentary exchanges in the region, before the Tai a Kiwa programme which was formalised a year ago.

"Firstly, up to Vanuatu and the Solomons," he said.