Suva
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Suva (population 141,000) is the capital of Fiji. It is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu. Suva became the capital of Fiji in 1877 when the geography of former main European settlement at Levuka on the island of Ovalau proved too restrictive. Suva is located at 18°10' South, 178°27' East (-18.1667, 178.45).
Suva is the commercial and political centre of Fiji, and the largest city in the South Pacific outside of Australia and New Zealand. It is Fiji's main port city and was the host of the 2003 South Pacific Games. Fiji's tallest building, the Reserve Bank of Fiji Building, is located in Suva, but this will be shortly be overtaken by the tallest building in the Pacific Islands region, which will be built on the nearby site of the old Morris Hedstrom store in Suva.
Although Suva is on a peninsula, and almost surrounded by sea, the nearest beach is 40km away at Pacific Harbour, and the nearby coast is lined by mangroves. A significant part of the city centre, including the old Parliament Buildings, is built on reclaimed mangrove swamp. Suva is noted for its considerable rainfall. Although it is not as wet as Pohnpei, the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia, it has a markedly higher rainfall than Nadi and the western side of Viti Levu, which is known to Suva citizens as "the burning west".
Suva is host to more international and regional intergovernmental agencies and NGOs than any other Pacific Island capital, to the considerable chagrin of some other capitals (the staff of these agencies have considerable spending power).
The TRAFFIC Oceania South Pacific Programme, funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is located in Suva, in the offices of the WWF South Pacific Programme. The programme assists in the implementation of CITES, but also strengthens collaboration with WWF.
The Fiji School of Medicine, which is now classed as a regional agency and a member of the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific, and the main campus of the University of the South Pacific are in Suva.
Suva also hosts the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission.
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