A new website aimed at reducing the cost of sending money from New Zealand to the Pacific was launched by the Pacific Island Affairs Minister over the weekend.
The site is a NZAID and AusAID funded project to improve the transparency of remittance costs, speed the process and stimulate competition amongst service providers.
The Minister, Georgina te Heuheu, says Pacific people remitting money from New Zealand and Australia play an important part in supporting sustainable economic development in many Pacific countries.
She says remittances to the Pacific are substantial - amounting to over 425 million US dollars a a year.
"It's estimated that upto a three quarters of a million Pacific people remit money every year, that's a huge amount and they are clearly been carrying a burden by way of costs up until recently and so the website just adds to the service that is available."
Georgina te Heuheu says pamphlets have also been printed for those people who don't not have access to the internet.
The website provides details for transferring money from New Zealand or Australia to Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
