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By John Woods

RAROTONGA, Cook Islands (Cook Islands News, May 31) – The Cook Islands capital, Rarotonga, will be inundated next week by scores of New Zealand heavyweights in politics and commerce. Foreign affairs minister Winston Peters is bringing a delegation of around 60 people to the Cook Islands during what's called the annual "Pacific roadshow".

For Peters, leader of the New Zealand Party, it will be a case of returning to the island he often visits on holiday - but this time he will be on duty. The delegation arrives on Wednesday 7 June and leaves on Saturday 10 June. They will be in Rarotonga the whole time.

Beforehand the delegation will visit Vanuatu for a few days.

Peters will be accompanied by a delegation comprising members of parliament as well as business and non-government organisation representatives.

It has become a tradition for New Zealand's minister of foreign affairs to lead a delegation of MPs, non-governmental organisations...

Editorial

Solomon Star

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (June 1) – Manging and protecting public finances remains a huge challenge for the Government.

The Sogavare Government is conscious of this fact.

In its policy document released last week, the Government admits there’s still much to do in the area of public finance.

It identified tax reform, monetary and fiscal policy management, accessibility to credit, and debt management as areas that need to be urgently addressed.

There is also, the Government reckons, a greater need to manage the government’s financial system with integrity.

The previous government, with the help of RAMSI, had taken the initiative to reform the country’s taxation system. The reform process is ongoing.

It had also put into place positive monetary and fiscal policies, and had been commendably servicing the country’s huge debt.

But managing government finances to ensure every single cent is accounted for...

PAPEETE, Tahiti (Tahitipresse, June 2) – French Polynesia Vice President Jacqui Drollet threatened Thursday a Temaru government boycott of a June 26 France-Oceania Summit in Paris if France does not abolish an airport tax that took effect in Tahiti Thursday.

That was the message Drollet gave to the French state when he met in Paris Thursday with French Overseas Minister François Baroin.

The scheduled summit, involving 16 heads of government from the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum, is to be the second to be held by French President Jacques Chirac. The first was held in Tahiti in July 2003 during Chirac's official visit to French Polynesia.

The French state-imposed airport tax involves 1,193.3 French Pacific francs (US$13) for each passenger boarding an international flight out of the Tahiti-Faa'a International Airport. There is also a tax of 179 French Pacific francs (US$2) per passenger boarding an inter-island flight and a tax of 59.67 French Pacific francs (...

PNG CITES ‘CUMBERSOME’ SYSTEM IN LOST GRANTS

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, June 2 ) – Papua New Guinea’s top public servant has described the procedures involved in accessing European Union funds as "very, very cumbersome."

The Government’s Chief Secretary Joshua Kalinoe said this when responding to a statement by Foreign Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu earlier this week. Sir Rabbie had said public service slackness had resulted in PNG losing PGK45 million [US$15.6 million] in free development grants from the European Union last year.

Yesterday, Mr Kline said: "We have to sit down and look at the reasons why we have not been doing well in drawing down on facilities from the European Union. Apart from our own lack of capacity to draw down, we also have to look at the procedure that is being required by the European Union. It is very cumbersome. "

He said the "turn around time" on project proposals is six to seven months.

"When we...