Innovation Means Business For Pacific

Innovation Means Business For Pacific

It’s no mean task to address the collective Pacific Islands’ $1billion trade imbalance with New Zealand.

But Pacific Islands Trade & Invest Trade Commissioner Adam Denniss believes that innovative ideas, creativity and courage will help push the Pacific forward.

“We have groups of Pacific Island entrepreneurs that are willing and able to try something new,” he said.

In 2012 PT&I assisted the Pacific with $1.9 million in export sales and $495,000 in Pacific based investments. This year, PT&I continued to build momentum with innovative projects.

On May 13, Cook Islands and New Zealand based enterprise Film Raro will launch a major new film initiative that will bring international attention to the Cook Islands for a 12-day short film competition. The brainchild of Film Raro Managing Director Stan Wolfgramm, the project has taken on a whole new meaning for locals who have been recently trained to work on and star in the productions. The finished films will be screened in Rarotonga at a public premier on May 25. The project is designed to kick start film industry development in the Cook Islands.

Meanwhile, three Cook Islands based business women, who have already captured the international spotlight, banded together to sell their different products at the Tav store in Royal Oak, Auckland.

2 Tav is a Cook Islands resort fashion label owned by Ellena Tavioni who created ‘the dress’ made famous when worn by the Duchess of Cambridge during the Royal Tour of the Pacific Islands tour with Prince William.

The Te Ra clutch purses and handbags range owned by Rachel Guinea was notable when United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton carried a Te Ra clutch to a private function.

And the Te Tika, a skin care range pioneered by Cook Islands Dr Graham Matheson and promoted by Michal McKay provided a perfect complement. The beauty range is based on Cook Islands Maori medicine and uses natural ingredients such as aloe vera, hibiscus, radish root all grown organically in the Cook Islands. Dermatologists praised the range for its use of botanical and naturally derived ingredients using bio active oils. The popularity of the range has seen Te Tika expand its reach into New Zealand and Australia.

Last but by no means least, PT&I launched its own Aquaponics project during the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Leaders’ meeting in August 2012. PT&I worked alongside Aquaponics world leading expert Dr Wilson Lennard in association with the Cook Islands Marine Resources Department. The project captured the attention of New Zealand and Pacific government agencies interested in promoting food security worldwide.

These initiatives show Pacific entrepreneurs are unafraid of forging into new territory and that success will become bigger and better in future, says PT&I Trade Commissioner Denniss.

ENDS

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