---
title: "Science and technology in Pacific Island countries"
chunk: 1/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Pacific_Island_countries"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:38:13.011932+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Science and technology in Pacific Island countries encompass a diverse range of activities and innovations that address the unique challenges faced by this geographically dispersed region. Despite limited resources and infrastructural constraints, Pacific Island nations have made notable progress in areas such as digital connectivity, agricultural innovation, and climate resilience. Advancements in mobile and internet technologies have improved access to information and services, while regional cooperation has fostered the development of research networks and shared scientific infrastructure. The application of emerging technologies, including nuclear science for agriculture and DNA monitoring for biosecurity, is increasingly shaping policy and development initiatives. However, the region continues to face obstacles such as data scarcity, limited research funding, and vulnerability to climate change, necessitating ongoing collaboration and investment to realize the full potential of science and technology for sustainable development.

== Socio-economic context ==

=== Trends ===
Pacific Island economies are mostly dependent on natural resources, with a tiny manufacturing sector and no heavy industry. In Fiji and Papua New Guinea, for instance, there is a need to adopt automated machinery and design in forestry and to improve training, in order to add value to exports.
Papua New Guinea experienced the strongest economic growth between 2005 and 2013 (60%), during the commodities boom. Even during the global financial and economic crisis of 2008–2009, its economy grew by 13%. Vanuatu saw the next strongest growth (35%) over this period, including 10% growth in 2008–2009. Growth was more pedestrian in the Marshall Islands (a cumulative 19%), Tuvalu (16%), Samoa (15%), Kiribati (13%), Fiji (12%) and Tonga (8%). The economies of the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau actually shrank over this nine-year period. Samoa, the Marshall Islands and Fiji all experienced recession in 2008 and 2009.
The trade balance is more skewed towards imports than exports, with the exception of Papua New Guinea, which has a mining industry. There is growing evidence that Fiji is becoming a re-export hub in the Pacific; between 2009 and 2013, its re-exports grew threefold, accounting for more than half of all exports by Pacific Island states. Samoa can also expect to become more integrated in global markets from now on, having joined the World Trade Organization in 2012. Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are also members of the World Trade Organization.
Pacific Island states make up a very small share of the South Pacific's high-tech exports. These exports receded between 2008 and 2013 by 46% for Fiji and by 41% for Samoa, according to the United Nations' Comtrade database. Fiji's high-tech exports were down from US$5.0 million to US$2.7 million and Samoa's from US$0.3 to US$0.2 million.
In 2013, the majority of Fijian high-tech exports were pharmaceutical products (84%), whereas Samoa exports mainly scientific instruments (86%) and Kiribati non-electrical machinery (79%). Armaments make up 92% of high-exports from the Solomon Islands.

=== Internet access ===
By 2013, one in three inhabitants of Fiji, Tonga and Tuvalu had Internet access. Growth in Internet access since 2010 has levelled out the disparity between countries to some extent, although connectivity remained extremely low in Vanuatu (11%), the Solomon Islands (8%) and Papua New Guinea (7%) in 2013.
Advances in mobile phone technology have clearly been a factor in the provision of Internet access to remote areas. The flow of knowledge and information through internet is likely to play an important role in the more effective dissemination and application of knowledge across the vast Pacific Island nations.
Mobile Internet penetration was the lowest (18%) of any region in the world in 2018 but this figure is expected to double by 2023. In this remote region, high-speed Internet access comes from laying an expensive undersea cable. Recent links have been created for Papua New Guinea (2020), the Solomon Islands (2020) and Tonga (2018).
Pacific countries are reshaping their social and economic environments to meet digital demands. To benefit from modern digital and other technological tools, regulatory bodies have adopted social media platforms and messaging systems in official protocols to disseminate disaster warnings in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Niue, as well as weather forecasts and information on climate change.
In 2015, the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders established an ICT Working Group made up of CROP agencies that is co-ordinated by the University of the South Pacific. However, no regional mechanism has since emerged in this area.
In the Boe Declaration on Regional Security, produced during the 2018 Pacific Islands Forum, Pacific leaders expanded the concept of security to include cybersecurity. Efforts are under way to assess cybersecurity capacity in Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia, in tandem with the United Nations International Telecommunication Union and other partners. Samoa has been the first to develop a National Cyber Security Strategy 2016–2021.

== Regional initiatives ==