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By John Apami

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (Dec. 1, 1999 – The National)---Sandaun will be the first province to invite Pacific Island nations to grow their food on unused Papua New Guinea land.

Governor John Tekwie said negotiations were progressing well.

Mr. Tekwie said the province has allocated about 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) for islands that do not have sufficient land for crop growing purposes.

He said the arrangements were part of his effort to make Sandaun a free trade zone.

He said negotiations with the island countries, especially Nauru, were well underway.

He said initial talks with this once phosphate-rich island were positive and a formal agreement is likely to be made before the end of the year.

Mr. Tekwie has written to Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Ted Diro and Department Secretary Mirie Setae about his government's initiatives.

He said he has made land available for food production for countries...

November 30, 1999
PINA Nius Online

750 TURTLES TAGGED IN NEW CALEDONIA

NOUMEA, New Caledonia (November 30, 1999 - PINA Nius Online)---New Caledonia's environmentalists have ended a two-week study campaign by tagging some 750 marine turtles, the daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes reports.

The 1999 project, jointly organized by the New Caledonian Association for the Protection of Nature and the CIPAC company, was undertaken in efforts to monitor the turtles’ movements and better assess the stock, especially in the northern part of the territory.

Last year, only 398 turtles were tagged.

"But this year, we have sighted about 2,000 turtles, but not as many hatching sites as before, which would tend to mean that this year the turtles arrived here later," expedition leader Philippe Massenet said.

MISS NEW CALEDONIA WINS MISS FRANCE, MISS EUROPE CONTESTS

NOUMEA, New Caledonia (November 30, 1999 - PINA Nius Online)---...

SUVA, Fiji Islands (December 1, 1999 – Radio Australia)---Fiji's central Reserve Bank reports that rising business confidence and good performances in the country's key industries have resulted in strong economic growth this year of nearly eight percent.

In its latest quarterly report, the bank stated that most firms are more optimistic about business conditions in the next three to 12 months than they were six months ago.

It predicts increased output in most sectors, with employment likely to rise and most firms in the manufacturing, construction and tourism sectors expecting business conditions to improve.

The new optimism and strong growth comes after years of economic recession and depressed business and investor confidence in the Fiji economy.

The bank said Fiji's sugar industry this year is expected to produce 400-thousand tons, generating earnings of about $248 million, an increase of 63 percent over last year.

Although investment remains...

PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S DIVINE WORD IS TO INTRODUCE DISTANCE EDUCATION

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (November 29, 1999 Post-Courier/Pasifik Nius/Niuswire)---A private university in Papua New Guinea, Divine Word University, is embarking on distance education in an effort to make tertiary education and training available to professionals in various government and private sector organizations, the Post-Courier reports.

As a start, the university will launch two major programs in the new year in management and human resources to help meet the management training needs of the public and corporate sectors.

The university has set up a Tertiary Distance Education Centre through which courses will be offered.

Two courses will be offered beginning in February of next year.

These are the Diploma of Management and Diploma of Human Resource Management.

A husband and wife team, Merv and Robyn Stonehouse, are running the courses at the center.

Both...