MANILA, Philippines—Prime Minister Apesai Ielemia and wife Sikinala of the small Polynesian nation of Tuvalu were here this week seeking to establish a consulate in the Philippines and possible business partnerships.During the visit, however, the couple also made sure they visited some tourist spots such as Luneta and Intramuros. “Manila is very developed compared to our country,” Ielemia said, adding that he intends to make the Philippines a benchmark for growing their economy and improving livelihood, which has been mostly fishing. Tuvalu is located between Australia and Hawaii, making it a nation with the biggest sea area in the Pacific Region, he added. Ielemia also noted that he chose the Philippines for probable business ventures after a Filipino who migrated to Tuvalu made it big, following the establishment of an Internet and movie compact-discs rental business. Tuvalu, which consists of eight islands and about 10,000 citizens, boasts of being the “most peaceful country” in the world, said Ielemia. He also joked that policemen in their nation “were mostly sleeping and without a job to do” because of the zero crime rate. He said their prisons do not even have iron bars. Ielemia’s wife was surprised by the security given to them, noting that they do not even have security guards in their country. Although over two dozen men of the Presidential Security Group were trailing her, Sikinala particularly liked shopping at the Mall of Asia, adding in jest that its size “seemed to swallow [me] up.” The First Lady, who admitted watching Filipino soap operas with subtitles, said she also enjoyed going to the museums and eating Filipino dishes, particularly those with coconut cream. Tuvalu lies west of the international dateline and 1,000 kilometers north of Fiji in the central Pacific just below the equator and is 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the same time zone as Fiji. The six atolls and three islands that make up Tuvalu together total only 25 square km in land area, curving northwest-southeast in a chain 676 km long on the outer western edge of Polynesia, according to their tourism website. | 
