News Releases

The fifth Young Pacific Leaders Conference in Honolulu, Hawai‘i will take place January 16-18, 2018, through a partnership between the East-West Center's Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP) and the U.S. Department of State.  

HONOLULU - (September 20, 2017) -- The East-West Center has welcomed 27 emerging leaders from 10 Pacific island nations to this year’s Pacific Islands Leadership Program with Taiwan, or PILP. The participants will spend close to two months in Honolulu, engaging in experiential learning exercises on such topics as applied leadership skills, future scenario planning, social entrepreneurship and risk analysis, climate change and environmental stewardship, international relations, and public health. Then they will travel to Taipei for a month of field study in at the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs.

Now in its fifth year, the program is intended to strengthen participants’ knowledge and understanding of key economic, social, political, health, educational and environmental issues affecting the region, and enable them to cultivate the leadership skills, approaches and networks to make meaningful contributions to the region...

Office of the CNMI Congressional Delegate
Washington, DC

Aug. 2, 2017

The U.S. Senate approved by unanimous consent U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan’s bill making more CW foreign worker permits available for fiscal year 2017. H.R. 339 also puts more money into the fund for training U.S. workers for jobs in the Marianas economy. And the measure bars future use of CW permits for temporary construction workers. The recent surge of construction workers, using CW permits, forced hospital nurses to leave the Marianas and many local businesses to lose their long-time foreign workers.

Sablan’s legislation was amended in the Senate, and so now returns to the House for final approval before going to the president for signature. The bill previously passed the House without dissent. As amended, the bill sets aside at least 60 new permits for healthcare workers to address the needs of the commonwealth hospital and private medical clinics. Another 10...

Acting Interior assistant secretary for Insular Areas Nikolao Pula has made available $635,885 for natural and cultural resource protection for all U.S. island jurisdictions in the Micronesia region. “It is reassuring to see the range of initiatives we have been able to support with this funding, from managing fisheries that support people’s livelihoods to suppressing the impacts of the damaging coconut rhinoceros beetle and little fire ant,” said Pula. “We are happy to support and bolster the collaborative efforts of conservation-minded leaders across the Micronesia region.”