Find Printing and Publishing expertise in Kiribati

The publishing industry in Kiribati is a niche sector, with much influence originating from its developed neighbours Australia and New Zealand or the Government of Kiribati — rather than from a private publishing sector. The private sector is based around regional and international educational publishers, like Macmillan Brown Centre for the Pacific Studies, or local organisations such as Church newsletters. Another example of the few private publishing houses include the tourism-orientated Tobaraoi Travel which provides travel guides for the local Pacific region, and has offices in Australia and Kiribati.

Due to the small size of Kiribati, the country is not listed in the Global Competitiveness Report 2012–13 for its intellectual property protection. Despite this, neighbouring countries New Zealand and Australia are placed three and 19 out of 144 countries respectively, with scores of 6.1 and 5.3 out of 7.0 for anti-counterfeiting measures.

The emerging English language influence within the industry is reflected in the wider struggle with the older generation’s effort to discourage young people from misuse of words and incorrect grammar, with many new words or slang terms of non-Kiribati origin being introduced. Both the Ministry of Education and the Broadcasting and Publication Authority play a major role in encouraging potential writers to reduce short stories either in English or the vernacular. The University of the South Pacific has a campus on the island, establishing a market for educational publishers.

The printing industry in Kiribati is extremely small with only the government printing department being one of the major companies in the printing industry, with its productions totalling 60% of the market. Because of this, there are very few independent printing houses.