Shipping

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Solomon Islands—Small boats help link islands in the Pacific.
Photographer: Rob Maccoll

Shipping is the Pacific’s lifeline.  International services are adequate but domestic services to remote communities are often few and far between because they are not economically viable. One way to overcome this is to auction subsidies to private sector operators to service non-commercial remote locations. In Fiji, use of this system has increased passenger numbers to distant islands by more than 60 per cent and cargo volumes by 80 per cent.