The Asian Development Bank is beefing up its presence in the region with new and expanded offices in about half of the Pacific's small island countries.
The bank, known as the ADB, provides loans, grants and other help to its members and has 700 million US dollars worth of projects in the region.
The ADB's Paul Curry told Sally Round the scale-up reflects the bank's growing portfolio in the Pacific, rather than any race for a spot in an increasingly contested space.