Search the SPREP Catalogue

The Asia and Pacific region is home to dynamic start-up ecosystems, with new enterprises that produce digital solutions for domestic, regional and global markets serving wide variety of businesses, public institutions, civil society and consumers directly.

Satellite communication plays a necessary role in the global connectivity ecosystem, connecting rural and remote populations, providing backhaul connectivity to mobile celluar networks, and rapidly establishing communication in emergency and disaster response scenarios.

COVID-19 brought an abrupt end to buoyant cruise ship tourism, and the closure of national borders led to the demise of island tourism. Typically, in Vanuatu and Samoa, resorts, restaurants, and other components of the formal and informal sectors closed down. Much employment was lost (especially of women), creating development problems at every level, alongside a reversion to self-reliance, raising questions over the future of tourism industries and national and island economies.