The Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP) is pleased to announce the release of the inaugural AIFFP Annual Update, providing a comprehensive overview of the AIFFP’s activities, achievements, and impact to date. 

As of 30 June 2023, the AIFFP has announced AUD 1.2 billion in financing towards 13 projects across eight countries. Each project has been developed in close consultation with Pacific partners in line with each country’s national priorities in key sectors such as energy, transport and urban infrastructure, telecommunications, airports and maritime.  

The AIFFP is committed to responsible and sustainable lending practices and works closely with partners to develop flexible and tailored finance packages. Since 30 June 2023, the AIFFP has committed further financing for projects in the region, giving the AIFFP a total portfolio of 16 projects worth AUD 1.3 billion. 

The Annual Update highlights the AIFFP’s commitment to achieving development outcomes, with all projects designed to meet the highest international standards on social and environmental safeguards, optimisation of job creation and economic opportunities for local workers and firms.  

Australia, through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP), is partnering with Fiji Ports Corporation Limited to provide AUD380,000 for a feasibility study to inform the redevelopment of the Lautoka foreshore, located within the Port boundary.

The grant agreement was signed on 22 November between Fiji Ports Corporation Limited CEO, Varija Piyasena and His Excellency Ewen McDonald, Australian High Commissioner to Fiji and Special Envoy for Pacific and Regional Affairs.

The feasibility study will forecast requirements to 2030, 2040 and 2050, and comprise an assessment of current conditions, operations and facilities.

With the growth in the volume of cargo and passengers arriving and departing within Fiji’s shores this will assist in managing future capacity constraints, providing support to Fiji’s economic growth and the jobs that come with it.

The foreshore’s feasibility study is the fourth project in Fiji funded under the AIFFP, and the first investment in maritime infrastructure. The AIFFP’s projects in Fiji include upgrades to Fiji’s international and outer island airports; improvements to roads and bridges; and efforts to reduce flood risk.

Australia and Fiji are longstanding partners and friends and Australia is proud to play a role in enabling Fiji’s vision for Lautoka Foreshore.

Vanuatu’s critical aviation sector will benefit from the signing today of an agreement between Australia and Vanuatu to design and scope a package of infrastructure works at Vanuatu’s international airports.

Under the memorandum of understanding (MOU), Australia, through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP), will continue supporting Airports Vanuatu Limited to update the 2018 Airports Masterplan to identify and prepare potential investments.

Design and scoping works are expected to result in a proposal, through the AIFFP, estimated at AUD80 million. Investments will respond to Vanuatu’s needs and priorities in aviation and the economy more broadly.

This MOU adds to Australia’s ongoing support for Vanuatu’s aviation sector which is vital for economic resilience, market access and regional connectivity. 

Quality and sustainability are central tenets of AIFFP’s value proposition. Investment design will consider climate resilience and appropriate environmental, social and gender safeguards. AIFFP financing keeps debt sustainability at the forefront, any investment proposal will be highly concessional considering Vanuatu’s economic needs.

The submission of concept notes closed on 23 October 2023.

The Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP) announced new partnership opportunities for organisations with solutions for providing reliable and affordable off-grid energy access to remote communities in the Pacific and Timor-Leste.

The new partnerships, implemented through AIFFP and the Business Partnerships Platform, support the Australian Government’s enhanced commitment to climate action in the region, and offer successful applicants up to AUD 1 million in co-funding for renewable energy initiatives.

This first-round call for funding opportunities is part of the Pacific Climate Infrastructure Financing Partnership, established by the Australian Government to invest in renewable energy and climate infrastructure projects to respond and adapt to climate change risks and impacts in the region.

The partnerships aim to increase access to reliable and affordable off-grid renewable energy to improve the lives, livelihoods and climate resilience of communities in the Pacific and Timor-Leste who cannot connect to an electricity grid. Proposals are eligible from all Overseas Development Assistance-eligible countries in the region.

Applications may be submitted by businesses, utilities, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions or other entities, either individually or in consortia, to deliver their initiatives in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Applicant organisations can originate from any country but must be eligible to operate in their proposal country. At least one private sector partner needs to be included in the partnership.

Work to manufacture and lay the East Micronesia Cable (EMC) has officially commenced, with the EMC Management Committee members signing a contract with the successful supplier, NEC Corporation.

The estimated $135 million project, enabled by grant funding from Australia through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific, Japan and the United States, will build an undersea cable to connect the state of Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Tarawa in Kiribati, and Nauru to the existing HANTRU-1 cable, located in Pohnpei, FSM.

The signed contract means the final cable design and manufacturing of the cable, which will be no wider than a garden hose, will now begin. Once built, the East Micronesia Cable will be laid across the ocean floor and connected to landing infrastructure in each country, providing faster, higher quality and more reliable and secure communications to more than 100,000 people across the three Pacific countries.

Today’s milestone is also marked by the launch of the East Micronesia Cable website, which provides information in English, Gilbertese, Kosraean and Nauruan.

Through the project, Australia is proud to support critical infrastructure development in the Pacific and the provision of resilient telecommunications assets, with the East Micronesia Cable to bring the Micronesian region closer together.

Read the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade media release.