The Honiara Action Plan was drawn up through British Government support during the 2007 Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) convention.

The successful biennial convention was organised and hosted by Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI) and held in the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara.
The Honiara Action Plan emphasises the importance of economic and business journalism for development in the region. It sets out a series of practical steps to strengthen this, and highlights existing examples of best practice.

The Action Plan says that in too many news organisations across the Pacific Islands economic and business journalism continues to play a secondary role to political reportage.

The Action Plan says: "Vigorous, professional and independent economic and business journalism is crucial to the countries and territories the Pacific Islands news media serve. This is because it involves issues affecting the everyday lives and futures of all Pacific Islands people."

It adds that the economic and business challenges facing the nations of the region are many.

It says they include:
* Unprecedented moves towards regional and international economic integration and free trade.
* Fighting poverty.
* Overcoming corruption and inefficient governance.
* Promotion of private sector development.
* Resolving conflict over resource ownership and land rights.
* Resolving issues of resource development and sustainability.
* Climate change and its impact on land, agriculture and food supply.
* Reducing the growing gap between the haves and the have nots.
* Investment.
* Job creation and the constantly ticking timebomb of the unemployed young."

MASI’s theme for the biennial PINA convention was The Role of the Media in Developing Pacific Economies. It focused the attention of the region’s news media on this for the first time.

This was promoted in a series of convention sessions, as well as through the British Government-supported working group and pre-convention workshop attended by regional and Solomon islands journalists.

The Honiara Action Plan:
*Commends those news organisations in the region already focusing on developing economic and business journalism. It urges others to consider how they can better serve their communities by doing this. It especially notes the efforts of The National newspaper in Papua New Guinea and the regional news magazine Islands Business, of Fiji, and Pacific Magazine, Honolulu, as examples of what can be achieved.
* Urges all the region’s journalism education and training schools to include economic and business journalism as important parts of their programmes. It commends the willingness of Divine Word University in Madang, Papua New Guinea, to develop this. It welcomes the efforts of the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, to promote research on media and reporting on the economy.
* Thanks the British Government, through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its High Commission in Honiara, for its support for the development of economic and business journalism. It suggests that as a followup activity consideration be given to funding development and publication of a handbook on Pacific Islands economic and business journalism to be used in newsrooms and journalism schools.
* Urges the incoming leadership of PINA to make expanding economic and business journalism training and development a priority. This should include training and development for all media, radio, television, print and new media.
* Congratulates the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat for its well established Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM) regional workshop and coverage teams. It commends the Forum Secretariat for its constant support of the FEMM programmes.
It welcomes Forum Secretariat efforts to expand this to include the Forum Trade Ministers Meetings. It requests the Forum Secretariat to additionally seek further funding support to expand this to all Forum regional meetings on business and economic issues. It urges the Forum Secretariat to ensure these opportunities are equally available to journalists of all Forum Island Countries.
* Urges the European Union to promote better public understanding of its Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations and implementation with Pacific members of the African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) group. It requests the EU offices in Port Moresby, Honiara, Port Vila and Suva to work with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva to establish regional workshop/reporting teams on these along the same lines as the Forum Secretariat’s successful FEMM programmes.
* Welcomes the initiatives announced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Honiara. These include introducing Pacific Islands economic and business journalism training and additionally developing an easy-to-use electronic glossary of economic and business terms for Pacific Islands journalists. Use and mastery of these terms will help build economic understanding.
* Welcomes the willingness of the Forum Fisheries Agency, based in Honiara, to readily provide specialist help to economic and business journalists reporting on this key resource sector. It commends the moves by the Forum Fisheries Agency to expand its information officer role to include working directly with the news media.
* Commends the Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI), through Governor Rick Hou and Deputy Governor Denton Rarawa, for their willingness to provide regular briefings on economic performance. It recommends these clear, easy-to-understand and up-to-date briefings as an example of best practice for other central banks in the Pacific Islands.
* Congratulates the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI) for its outstanding efforts in promoting the role of the media in Pacific Islands economic growth. It recommends the MASI and Papua New Guinea Media Council secretariats jointly act as focal points for developing these economic and business journalism initiatives until a functional PINA Secretariat is reestablished by the incoming PINA executive.

The working group comprised:
Peter Lomas, editor-in-chief of the Pitt Media Group (Cook Islands Television, Radio Cook Islands, Cook Islands Herald, Cook Islands Times,

Johnson Honimae, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat media officer and previously general manager of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation, president of PINA, and a longtime Solomon Islands and regional radio and print media journalist.

Justin Kili, MBE, executive officer and trainer for the Papua New Guinea Media Council and a longtime broadcaster with PNG FM and the National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea.

Patrick Lino, general manager and chief editor of the Broadcasting Corporation of Niue (Television Niue and Radio Sunshine).

Kevin Pamba, journalism lecturer at Divine Word University, Madang, Papua New Guinea, newspaper columnist, and former business editor of The National, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.