Japan’s ODA in the Pacific island states

Abstract

The Pacific island countries, referred to as Oceania in Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) reports, comprise a region of 14 independent and self-governing states. They are Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue, Nauru, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. Foreign aid, or ODA, plays a key role in the economies of these countries. ODA to the Pacific island countries mainly comprises technical assistance, capital grants, and soft loans. Japan’s aid to the Pacific islands in the 1990s was sustained at relatively high levels. These aid flows were motivated by a combination of commercial, resource, and political interests. Japan’s resource interests in the Pacific center on access to and utilization of resources and on environmental conservation. Japan’s technical cooperation to the Pacific islands comprises the dispatch of volunteers, experts, and study teams to the region, the dispatch of trainees to Japan, and the provision of equipment.