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Best known for their contributions to National Infrastructure Investment Plans (NIIPs), which have proliferated across the Pacific for a decade, the Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility (PRIF) now also hosts an annual “PRIF Week”. From 17 - 22 October 2022, PRIF, a club of western donors to the Pacific, held the event for only the second time. This year’s theme, ‘Enhancing Private Sector and Local Participation in Pacific Infrastructure’ was pitched at local firms and contractors who are seeking a larger slice of the donor-led infrastructure pie.

Construction is a vital industry, creating buildings and spaces that connect communities, providing jobs, and improving society. Materials used in construction signifies structural existence. It demonstrates the presence of aesthetic sense in a design, and hence, defines the practicability of the structure. The use of building material(s)while designing a structure is symbolic of its existence in the field of architectural visualization.

Bamboo conjures images of Asian jungles, rattan furniture and slow chewing giant pandas. Used for centuries as a construction material and raw material for producing paper pulp, it is also a food source for humans and animals. Its unique and versatile properties make it both potentially useful and potentially variable as an engineering product. This article explores renewed interest in the uses of bamboo in Fiji and how confidence is growing over its promise to address multi-dimensional issues facing Fiji and other Pacific island nations.

When Penny Wong, Australia’s new Foreign Minister visited Honiara in June, she restated a new direction in Australian foreign policy – a first nations foreign policy. It is an idea that resonates readily with politicians and everyday people, but what exactly does it mean? As policymakers grappled with the implications, who would have thought that the first tangible evidence of what it could mean would be in the infrastructure industry?

Skills training is at the heart of a new programme designed to support teachers and bring science learning to life for Solomon Islands’ school children.