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© 2025 Island Innovation. All rights reserved.

    News

    Curated stories and analysis from islands and sustainability leaders worldwide.

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    Showing 9 of 130 news items in Connectivity & Digitization
    Greece Boosts Ferry Subsidies to €167 Million, Launches New Island Initiatives
    Connectivity & DigitizationOctober 13, 2025

    Greece Boosts Ferry Subsidies to €167 Million, Launches New Island Initiatives

    Photo credit: Maritime Ministry via News.GTP.gr Excerpt from News.GTP.gr Greece has increased funding for ferry connections to its remote islands to 167 million euros in 2025, supporting 77 routes and strengthening vital links for small communities. During the Panhellenic Small Islands conference, Deputy Maritime Minister Stefanos Gkikas announced the expanded subsidy, which marks a sharp rise from 90 million euros in 2019, underscoring the government’s commitment to improving connectivity across the Aegean and Ionian. “With the new Multiannual Financial Framework 2028–2034 and the upcoming EU Strategy for Islands, the EU has a unique opportunity to recognize island regions as a strategic priority,” Gkikas said. “Greece, in turn, can leverage this European momentum for the development of its islands.”

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    Singapore issues greenwashing guidelines for businesses
    Connectivity & DigitizationOctober 13, 2025

    Singapore issues greenwashing guidelines for businesses

    Excerpt from eco-business.com Singapore’s competition watchdog has published new guidance to curb misleading environmental and product claims, a practice known as greenwashing. The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) released its guide on Monday, outlining five principles for businesses to follow when making claims about the qualities, uses or benefits of their products. These include ensuring claims are accurate, clear, meaningful, evidence-based and sufficiently substantiated.

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    Lessons for Global South as a sinking Indonesian island sues climate polluters
    Connectivity & DigitizationSeptember 30, 2025

    Lessons for Global South as a sinking Indonesian island sues climate polluters

    Excerpt from asianews.network DHAKA – Since late August, Indonesia has been gripped by demonstrations rooted in long-standing structural pressures faced by its people. The outrage is fuelled by economic hardship, a faltering economy, and a government largely turning a blind eye to people’s struggles. Amid this unrest, at the beginning of this month, another confrontation emerged, far from the political spotlight. A crucial preliminary court hearing took place in a lawsuit filed by four Pulau Pari residents against Holcim, the Swiss cement giant, according to The Guardian. The residents of this four-kilometre-long island, which is just about three metres above sea level and has already lost 11 percent of its land underwater, filed the civil lawsuit at a Swiss court in July 2022, demanding climate justice for the company’s role in the climate crisis. This is backed by Indonesian and international organisations, including Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER) and European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and saw its main hearing on September 3 at the Cantonal Court of Zug. The massive impact of carbon emissions on rising sea levels has placed Pulau Pari at risk of being wiped off the map. The plaintiffs feel it is unfair to suffer the consequences of global warming without contributing to pollution. Thus, they demand proportional compensation—urgent emission cuts of at least 43 percent by 2030 and contributions to climate adaptation measures.

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    Anguilla: The Caribbean island making millions from the AI boom
    Connectivity & DigitizationSeptember 9, 2025

    Anguilla: The Caribbean island making millions from the AI boom

    Caption: Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory renowned for its pristine beaches. Photo credit: BBC.com Excerpt from bbc.com Back in the 1980s when the internet was still in its infancy, countries were being handed their own unique website addresses to navigate this nascent new online world. Such as .us for the US or .uk for the UK. Eventually, almost every country and territory had a domain based on either its English or own language name. This included the small Caribbean island of Anguilla, which landed the address .ai. Unbeknownst to Anguilla at the time, this would become a future jackpot. With the continuing boom in artificial intelligence (AI), more and more companies and individuals are paying Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory, to register new websites with the .ai tag. Such as US tech boss Dharmesh Shah, who earlier this year spent a reported $700,000 (£519,000) on the address you.ai. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Shah says he purchased it because he had "an idea for an AI product that would allow people to create digital versions of themselves that could do specific tasks on their behalf".

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    Kosrae-Nauru-Kiribati subsea cable set to start operating by November - Island Times
    Connectivity & DigitizationSeptember 9, 2025

    Kosrae-Nauru-Kiribati subsea cable set to start operating by November - Island Times

    Excerpt from islandtimes.org PALIKIR (PACIFIC ISLAND TIMES) — The long-stalled undersea cable that will interlink Micronesian islands is expected to be up and running by November, following the fiber optic cable landing in Kosrae, which completed the three-segment infrastructure. Jointly funded by the U.S, Australia and Japan, the East Micronesia Cable will “transform the Federated States of Micronesia’s digital future,” the U.S Embassy in Pohnpei said after the undersea cable landed in Kosrae on 18 August. FSM officials marked the completion of cable installation in Kosrae with a Golden Buoy ceremony at the shore site in Tofol on 18 August, succeeding the 16 August and 23 July landings in Nauru and Kiribati, respectively.

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    Fusepay, a Seychelles-based fintech, raises $350k pre-seed to digitise business payments
    Connectivity & DigitizationAugust 12, 2025

    Fusepay, a Seychelles-based fintech, raises $350k pre-seed to digitise business payments

    Caption: L-R Fusepay founders, Francesco Rocchi (CTO) and Vidhyasahar Thiyagarajan (CEO) Photo courtesy of thecondia.com Excerpt from thecondia.com Fusepay, a Seychelles-based fintech, has raised $350,000 in pre-seed funding to modernise B2B payments across the Indian Ocean islands. Hustle Fund led the round with participation from Everywhere Ventures, First Check Ventures, Startup Istanbul, and angel investor Ryan Nesbitt. “We are on a mission to build modern finance and payments for the underserved indian ocean islands, starting with Seychelles. We‘re helping businesses save money, save time, and prevent fraud,” Vidhyasahar Thiyagarajan, CEO of Fusepay. “This funding marks a key milestone in our journey to become a licensed Payment Service Provider (PSP) in Seychelles.” Thiyagarajan (CEO) and Francesco Rocchi (CTO) founded Fusepay in June 2024. They both lived in Seychelles for decades, where they helped their families run retail and wholesale businesses. “…we saw how much time and money were lost to manual payments, chasing finances, and dealing with employee fraud, as the region continues to rely heavily on cash, paper, and outdated processes.”

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    Ireland Fellows Programme – Government of Ireland, International Development Programme
    Connectivity & DigitizationJuly 1, 2025

    Ireland Fellows Programme – Government of Ireland, International Development Programme

    OPENING 30 JUNE 2025 FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2026-27 The Ireland Fellows Programme enables early to mid-career professionals from eligible countries to benefit from a prestigious, world-class, quality education contributing to capacity building. The Programme offers selected students the opportunity to undertake a fully funded one-year master’s level programme at a higher education institution (HEI) in Ireland. The award covers programme fees, flights, accommodation and living costs. The Ireland Fellows Programme promotes gender equality, equal opportunity, and welcomes diversity. The Ireland Fellows Programme is one of a number of commitments set out in [Ireland’s Second Strategy for Partnership with Small Island Developing States (SIDS)](https://assets.ireland.ie/documents/SIDS_Strategy_2023.pdf) which reflects the breadth of areas where Ireland and SIDS already collaborate, and where we have shared interests in global outcomes. The aims of the Programme are: to nurture future leaders; to develop in-country capacity to achieve national Sustainable Development Goals, including addressing climate change; and to build positive relationships with Ireland. Since 2020, awards have been made to over 75 Fellows from 26 Small Island Developing States. Eligible master’s level programmes are listed in a Directory when applications open and are in a wide range of areas such as environmental leadership; food security; marine management; engineering; science and technology; development studies; international relations; law; human rights; gender and equality; health; education; information systems; social policy; and business. Programmes in Ireland commence in August or September each year and, depending on the programme, will run for between 10 and 16 months. The Ireland Fellows Programme is fully funded by the Irish Government and is offered under the auspices of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Applicants should hold a bachelor’s level academic qualification with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (4.0 scale) awarded within the last 12 years, and should not already hold a qualification at master’s level or higher. Potential applicants will require a satisfactory level of English which will be verified by English language testing. For full eligibility criteria and more information, please visit [www.irishaidfellowships.ie.](https://www.irishaidfellowships.ie/)

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    Nauru becomes first Pacific nation to establish dedicated crypto regulator
    Connectivity & DigitizationJune 24, 2025

    Nauru becomes first Pacific nation to establish dedicated crypto regulator

    Nauru has become the first Pacific nation to establish a dedicated regulatory authority for virtual assets. The Pacific nation of Nauru [passed](https://advancenauru.com/2025/06/17/republic-of-nauru-becomes-first-pacific-country-to-launch-digital-asset-regulator/) legislation on June 17 to create the Command Ridge Virtual Asset Authority, an autonomous body that will oversee cryptocurrency, digital banking, and Web3-related services. Under the new law, the CRVAA will introduce a licensing regime for virtual asset service providers, allowing them to register and operate using Nauru as a legal base. Although cryptocurrencies were already legal in Nauru, trading until now existed in a largely unregulated environment, with no specific oversight, licensing requirements, or regulatory framework in place. Under the new legislative framework, legal definitions have been introduced for various crypto-related activities.

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    UNESCO debates Afro-descendant presence in Caribbean and Latin American history and calls to create learning materials for schools
    Connectivity & DigitizationJune 24, 2025

    UNESCO debates Afro-descendant presence in Caribbean and Latin American history and calls to create learning materials for schools

    UNESCO’s [General History of Africa (GHA) Programme](https://www.unesco.org/en/general-history-africa) aims to offer a scientific perspective on world history, acknowledging the diverse contributions of African civilizations to global history. The GHA presented in its 9-volumes – wit two more currently being prepared for publication –  is the result of collaborative work by more than 230 historians and specialists, under the supervision of an international scientific committee.. The volumes cover the early kingdoms, the genocide of the transatlantic slave trade, the process of colonization, the liberation responses, and a special volume dedicated to the diaspora to other regions (to be published). In 2009, at the request of the Member States of the African Union, UNESCO launched an initiative to support the integration of the GHA  into formal, non-formal, and informal education, with the aim  of decolonizing the teaching and learning of history, challenging Eurocentric narratives. In this context, UNESCO is developing a GHA Resource Pack that includes tools designed to support stakeholders in the education sector in this important endeavor. The first of these tools is the Curriculum Pathway tool, specifically designed to assist curriculum developers in mainstreaming the GHA into national curricula.

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