{"id":48825,"date":"1999-11-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-11-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/952f1683-1dfb-11e4-aedf-250bc8c9958e"},"modified":"1999-11-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1999-11-16T00:00:00","slug":"952f1694-1dfb-11e4-aedf-250bc8c9958e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/952f1694-1dfb-11e4-aedf-250bc8c9958e\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacific business groups end Maui meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KIHEI, Hawaii-\u2013Business and government leaders from 11 Pacific Island nations concluded a five-day meeting Sunday on the role of business associations in island economic growth.<\/p>\n<p>Three major problem areas affecting development in island states were identified: high tariff rates, inadequate shipping and airline passenger routes and schedules, and the very high cost of telecommunications.<\/p>\n<p>Keynote speaker W. Noel Levi, secretary general of the 16-member South Pacific Forum, recommended the establishment of a Pacific Islands free trade zone.<\/p>\n<p>During the meeting, organized by the Maui Pacific Center, Levi  reported that a free trade arrangement has been endorsed in principle and that by 2009 it may include expansion beyond goods to include services.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The service agreement will allow participating countries to append protocols on telecommunications, shipping and air services that will create a larger and unified market, thereby lowering the cost of these services,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p> The need to consult and work together in the creation of the free trade area will be important and necessary, he said, and &#8220;Government needs strong, representative business associations with which to interact.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KIHEI, Hawaii-\u2013Business and government leaders from 11 Pacific Island nations concluded a five-day meeting Sunday on the role of business associations in island economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}