Cents and Sensibility

With surprisingly little fanfare, and virtually no local media analysis, Vanuatu’s minister of finance Maki Simelum delivered his budget speech earlier this month. It contained a brisk and moderately positive assessment of the state of the nation’s finances and not much more. Infrastructure projects were late getting off the ground, and failed to compensate for a 44% reduction in construction activity. Tourism was up again, and agriculture struggled. Aside from of the creation of a department to cope with climate change and geohazards (a needful thing in Vanuatu), the budget speech was largely bereft of new ideas. Donor and government attention remains firmly fixed on infrastructure.

This article was written by

Dan McGarry

http://www.imagicity.com

Dan McGarry is chief technologist at the Pacific Insititute of Public Policy. He has worked in the Pacific for over a decade now, assisting in numerous capacities in the development of ICTs in Vanuatu and the Pacific. He has extensive experience in technology policy formulation and implementation as well as in traditional and new media. He still writes software.

UNSURE REFUGE

DP25 – Predatory lending practices are leading some Pacific island countries toward insolvency.
VANUATU’S ECONOMIC GROWTH

DP10 – Little noticed, economic growth in Vanuatu has accelerated in recent years dispelling the myth that Pacific economies cannot grow.
URBAN HYMNS

DP18 – Urbanisation needs to be seen and managed as a national priority, while a new mindset is required that can look positively at the urban process.

ROCKET CITY

Ben Bohane moves with Guam Battalion down to Kandahar, whose large airfield is the jump-off point to various bases in the south and, it seems, often comes under attack.
FOB PATROL AND A RAPPING MEDIC

Ben Bohane goes to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, stepping outside the wire with more Micronesian troops and finding a medic who “raps” his mission in song.
IN PICTURES

In a historic presentation, West Papuan leaders representing their newly unified movement, have applied for membership of the MSG. Dan McGarry captures the ceremony in a photo essay.