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Koror mostly spared, impact on eastern atolls uncertain

HAGÅTÑA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Dec. 3, 2012) – Palau President Johnson Toribiong said this morning the island nation's capital, Koror, escaped major damage from Typhoon Bopha, but he's waiting for an assessment of eastern atolls and islands where waves went inland.

An initial assessment in Koror shows the damage was not extensive, except for downed trees and power disruption since yesterday afternoon, Toribiong said by phone from Koror.

"We've been blessed," Toribiong said, that Koror was spared from major damage.

Koror's TV and radio services are down and flights have been suspended, the president said. Making phone calls to Palau has been challenging as well.

Toribiong said initial reports showed seawater went inland in areas including Kayangel, Angaur and Babeldaob, where residents evacuated to higher ground.

The president said there has been no report of any casualty.

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Workshop discusses details of Skills Movement Scheme

By Sheenal Sharma

SUVA, Fiji (Fiji Times, Dec. 3, 2012) – Workers under the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Skills Movement Scheme (SMS) will be given MSG cards to facilitate their movement within the region.

This was revealed at the first national workshop on the MSG Skills Movement Scheme (SMS) in Suva.

Acting chief economist at the Ministry of Industry and Trade Sekove Tamanitoakula said the MSG cards would be linked to the SMS.

Mr Tamanitoakula said having MSG cards for the workers was something the members — Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji— were exploring.

"The sub-committee has been tasked by the senior officials to explore the possibility of using MSG cards," he said.

He said each country had listed a number of areas they had identified that they needed workers.

Mr Tamanitoakula said Fiji was 90 per cent ready to facilitate the movement of people...

Tuna Commission meeting in Manila expected to ‘be heated’

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (The Samoa News, Dec. 2, 2012) – Pacific island nations and environmentalists raised an alarm Sunday over destructive fishing methods and overfishing that they say are threatening bigeye tuna - the fish popular among sushi lovers worldwide.

Palau fisheries official Nanette Malsol, who leads the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), said at the start of a weeklong tuna fisheries conference in Manila that large countries should cut back on fishing, curb the use of destructive fishing methods and respect fishing bans to allow tuna stocks to be replenished in the Pacific, which produces more than 60 percent of the world's tuna catch.

The annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, which regulates commercial fishing in the vast expanse of waters from Indonesia to Hawaii, is to approve steps aimed at protecting the bigeye and other threatened tuna species,...

Looks for PM O’Neill to oppose move towards local ownership

By Frank Senge Kolma

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Dec. 3, 2012) – The extractive resources sector in PNG will be looking for one commitment from Prime Minister Peter O’Neill when he addresses the Mining and Petroleum Conference in Sydney, Australia, today.

It will want an emphatic "no" to current moves to change ownership of the mineral and petroleum resources from the state to individual land-owning groups.

While exploration and development activity in the resource industry is at an all-time high, contributing K2.2 billion a year or one third of the government tax revenue, the industry is bracing for the worst with the growing ownership change debate and a bill before parliament to that effect.

The position of the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum is this: "Complex regimes of landownership already pose significant challenges for resource development in PNG and a change...