Secretariat of the Pacific Community

The centre is to be hosted by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Noumea and will draw on the scientific and technical expertise across its various work programmes.

The SPC director general, Colin Tukuitonga, said it was a way to consolidate all the different types of research information and work to do with oceans that can all be easily accessible in one space.

Colin Tukuitonga was speaking as the regional agency marked its year of operations.

The US is a founding member and a significant funder of programmes undertaken by the SPC, which include extensive climate change activities.

But the Trump administration is full of climate change deniers and the president has said it is a hoax perpetrated by China.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community is calling for people to apply for funding to attend the show, called NY NOW Tradeshow, which attracted more than 30,000 buyers last year.

Its culture officer, Jessie McComb, says the trade mission aims to develop the profile of Pacific cultural producers in the international market.

She says it will also expose the chosen enterprises to international market trends and buyer demands.

A social development advisor for youth at the SPC, Mereia Carling, says the lack of data hides the gravity of many issues facing Pacific youth.

Ms Carling says high youth unemployment rates are particularly concerning.

"What we can see is that we are vastly underestimating the situation of youth unemployment in the region. So we really need to get the data behind those kinds of things so we can start to say actually you know the situation is not what we think it is. Its a lot worse."

A team from the SPC in country office, Youth@Work, NCD Warriors and from the Regional Economic Cooperation Branch of the Foreign Ministry has visited Panatina School, St. John School and Bishop Epalle School over the past two weeks to give presentations and awareness on issues relating to the work of SPC in Climate Change, Food Security and Healthy Diets, Unemployment and Economic Incentives for Youth, Physical Health and Non-Communicable Diseases.

A total of 466 students drawn from forms 4 to 6 from each school have attended the program.

The appointment of Sylvie Goyet to the position comes after a commitment by the French President Francois Hollande during a High-level Dialogue on Climate Change in New Caledonia last year.

That Dialogue at the SPC brought together Pacific leaders among more than 150 representatives of Pacific Community member countries and territories, alongside development partners.

It underscored France's determination to help Pacific countries and communities adapt to climate change.

The Pacific Youth Development Framework targets some familiar areas - health, employment, governance and the environment - with the aim of raising standards and increasing involvement by young people themselves.

Mereia Carling, Human Development Advisor with SPC, says youth took part in drafting the framework, and they hope their new approach will be more effective than previous efforts.

The CNMI's Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation had asked for additional expertise.

SPC epidemiologist, Paul White, will work with the CNMI health authorities and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the next two weeks.

He will assist with setting-up post-disaster surveillance systems in designated areas, such as temporary shelters for displaced people.

Dr White will also provide assistance with the collection, analysis and dissemination of real-time health data and the timely response to potential disease outbreaks.

An SPC scientist, Raphaël Billé, says if they do not commit at least to the recommended 2 degree target for temperature increase by the end of the century all ocean protection and management processes in the Pacific would be rendered useless.