Pacific Community

The new agreement will provide the opportunity to assign designated sites that focus on unique natural environments and cultural heritage, as well as boost partnership supporting the development of sustainable & diverse tourism opportunities across the Pacific.

On 1 August 2021, SPC’s member countries and territories welcomed the EU as the first Permanent Observer in the history of the Pacific’s largest development organisation.

Naisara is a lawyer by profession with a background experience as a TV Producer and Presenter with Fiji’s Mai TV. Naisara is also a former Miss Hibiscus, choreographer and contemporary dancer and Mom to 3 wonderful boys!

Q: What are some highlights of your 'personal achievements'?

“Even the two largest economies in the region, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, do not have the fiscal space to provide immediate recovery packages for businesses to survive or income support to those facing unemployment,” says former Professor of Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of the South Pacific, Biman Chand Prasad.

This was announced in Noumea by the head of the agency Yukiya Amano and follows the formal signing of an agreement in Vienna last month.

Mr Amano said such technology was effective in a range of fields, such as health, agriculture or the environment.

The community's deputy director Cameron Diver says given the development challenges facing the region, partnerships need to be reviewed and new scientific techniques added.

Mr Diver says nuclear technology could be applied to improve soil quality, in the fight against cancer and to trace marine pollution.

Palau is one of the countries experiencing a surge in dengue victims with 290 cases recorded for the first six months of this year.

The acting deputy director for SPC's Public Health Division Dr Salanieta Saketa said the same type of dengue Palau was affected by is present in five of the six countries the agency monitors each week.

“This is a magnificent and emphatic victory by a Pacific Island nation on the world stage,” Dr Tukuitonga said in Suva today.

“While Fijians are rejoicing, this proud victory will be celebrated across all 22 Pacific Island countries and territories,” he said.

In a region beset by youth unemployment and among the highest levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease globally, Dr Tukuitonga said Fiji’s Olympic Games victory had an added dimension as the rugby players were outstanding role models for the benefits of leading active, healthy lifestyles.  

This is the first time that the CRGA will convene mid-year and the new schedule follows an endorsement by members at the Pacific Community Conference in Alofi, Niue, in November 2015. 

Pacific Community Director-General, Dr Colin Tukuitonga, has highlighted climate change, youth, oceans and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the organisation’s inaugural statement at UN headquarters, made during the UN Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

“The global community has adopted a new Sustainable Development Agenda, and a new global agreement on climate change is expected in Paris later this year.  Let me say that from our perspective there cannot be Sustainable Development Goals without a binding agreement in Paris.