Pacific

Effective management of this revenue will be critical to ensure that long term benefits are realised.

Through the European Union Deep Sea Minerals Project, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) is partnering with the International Monetary Fund and the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre to hold a workshop in Nadi this week (24-27 August) that focuses on the management of revenue emanating from deep sea minerals development.

This is the sixth tropical cyclone in the Central North Pacific basin for the 2015 season.

If this depression attains tropical storm intensity, it will be named Kilo.

The center of tropical depression Three-C was located about 685 miles south-southeast of Hilo and 875 miles southeast of Honolulu.

The depression is moving toward the west near 16 mph. A west to west-northwest motion is expected over the next two days.

The renewed call came at the end of a workshop on the Fight against Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Objects in Vanuatu last week.

The director of the UNESCO Office for the Pacific states, Etienne Clement, says the convention is important for protecting the unique culture of the region.

"Which has been joined in by 129 countries all over the world but unfortunately none in the Pacific. So the workshop is really to invite the Pacific to join that convention, which is a benefit for the Pacific."

The 1987 South Pacific Tuna Treaty, which provides US purse seine vessels access to the Western and Central Pacific Ocean fisheries, has been extended through interim agreements since 2013, but a longer-term renewal hasn't been agreed to.

At a meeting this week in Brisbane, Australia, the United States and Pacific island nations party to the treaty agreed to an extension through 2016, said Doug Hines, executive director of South Pacific Tuna Corp., which represents 14 purse seine vessels fishing under the treaty. Company owners attended the Australia meeting.

The council heard pleas from ministers and ambassadors from Pacific states such as Kiribati, Fiji, Samoa, Niue and the Marshall Islands, and Caribbean countries like St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The island states want financial and technical assistance, to help avoid being washed away in the rising tides and powerful storms caused by global warming.

The president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, says the plight of smaller islands for too long has been at the bottom of the list of priorities of the United Nations and other global organisations.

But the report by the Asian Development Bank also shows the region is not doing enough to capitalise on the rapid expansion of its Asian neighbours.

Emma Veve is the Director of the ADB's Pacific Department and she says Pacific countries must do more to encourage innovation and generate wealth.

The World Health Organisation ranks eight Pacific island countries among the world's top 10 most obese nations.

Unless drastic measures are introduced the region is headed for disaster, says the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's director-general, Colin Tukuitonga.

"Small fragile health systems in the region just won't be able to cope," Dr Tukuitonga told AAP.

The Dialogue “Enhancing Macroeconomic Resilience to Natural Disasters in the Pacific Islands” will build on previous conferences held in Samoa and Vanuatu and recent IMF analytical work on this topic. It will bring together leading policymakers from 13 Pacific Island nations, as well as representatives from regional development partners, international financial organizations and think tanks.