T
here are 22 island countries and territories that make up the Pacific Island region, and these represent an enormous diversity in physical geography and culture, languages and socialpolitical organization, size and resource endowment. Spread over an area of 30 million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean are
at least 7,500 islands of which only around 500 are inhabited. These Small Island States (SIS) are characterised by generally small populations, typically less than one million people – and often around 100,000 people, with GDP per capita and the socio-economic state at the lower end of the scale. Frequently they have a limited number of skilled people, and many highly
qualified practitioners leave to secure jobs in the more populated countries. Despite their many synergies and a sense of regional allegiance, competition does exist between nations - SIS have to compete for tourism and for trade. Being limited by their remoteness and the cost of getting goods to market, SIS need to be
innovative and selective in how they market the few products they have as compared to larger countries. Often they simply lack the infrastructure to be efficient. Some of these disadvantages – such as remoteness and lack of volume – cannot be overcome, but many of these limitations can be mitigated with closer links to the world. The threat