SPEECH BY PETER FORAU, DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL
PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT


Duncan Kerr, Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs
Bob McMullan, Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance
Honourable Ministers
John Pilbeam, Australian High Commissioner
Distinguished Delegates from the Forum Region

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my pleasure on behalf of the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Mr Greg Urwin, to welcome you here today and to jointly host the launch of Pacific Economic Survey 2008. In case you don’t already know, we are here in the happiest place on Earth, and I hope there will be time for each of you to experience this natural character of this beautiful country.

I feel I am among kindred spirits for I believe that we share similar ideals and hopes for Pacific island countries – where our people are safe, healthy, educated and free of the burden of poverty.

For close to four decades the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat has been looking at ways to strengthen economic cooperation between member countries.

The fact that we still exist as an organisation, with a bigger membership, surely suggests that we are doing something right – that we are still relevant.

Not only are we relevant, our agenda has expanded beyond economic cooperation to include political and social issues, security and trade – the very things discussed in Pacific Economic Survey 2008.

The release of the Survey coincides with the Forum Secretariat’s own analysis of the implementation of the Pacific Plan. This week the Pacific Plan Action Committee is meeting at Nadi to, among other things, assess the performance of the Pacific Plan.

The Pacific Plan has given us a framework to see how we might benefit from regionalism: from shared resources of governance and policies that are aligned in the areas of economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security.

Meeting common ground in principle is one thing. In practice we do not share the same views all the time. We may be “The Pacific” but we are a diverse region, spread out over a large area.

It may not be immediately apparent that when something happens in one Pacific island country it can have a big impact on the rest of us.

But of course it does.

Together we face some very tough economic and social issues: increased pressure on fish stocks, high energy costs, lack of progress in trade and economic integration, climate change and gaps in transport services and infrastructure.

The Pacific Plan gives us a platform to address these collectively – not only to share information and learn from each other but also to implement regional initiatives especially in those areas where domestic markets may fail.
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In some areas we are making headway.

In fishing, we have completed a study of options for regional cooperation to develop the longline fishery and to revive the Alia fishery in Samoa

We have helped Papua New Guinea meet EU requirements for tuna products and provided advice in the World Trade Organization on fisheries subsidies.

We are supplying countries with technical information that will help shape energy policies and activities that lead to efficient and renewable energy supplies.

We are examining labour mobility programs and the benefits to sending and receiving countries.

And we are assisting countries prepare national action or adaptation plans to respond to the effects of climate change.

These are just a few examples.

There is one area where things are certainly moving forward and this is with information and communication technologies.

As the survey points out, after a slow start the Pacific is embracing computers and mobile phones.

A lot of our young people are now very proficient on a computer.

They are also very deft with their mobile phones.

But many have no experience of either and they wont’ unless we create the circumstances that will five them this experience.

For so long, many of our children have had to leave their villages and towns and travel to larger centres or other countries to receive higher education.

This is changing. Information technology has the capacity to bring education to them – formally or informally.

Education helps people grow as individuals and opens up new and exciting possibilities.

We owe it to our children to ensure that the policies and physical infrastructure are in place that will allow them to access these new technologies.

Quite frankly I don’t think our young people would forgive us if we left them out of the telecommunications revolution.

The same goes for transport. We need reliable and effective air and shipping services if our people are to get around more, to see the world, do business and trade. Importantly meaningful trade cooperation relies on these services.

One of the very encouraging things about Pacific Economic Survey is that it gives examples where good policies are reforming the telecommunication, aviation and shipping sectors – examples we can learn from.

This is what makes it such a valuable document.

I am very positive about the Survey. True there maybe analytical arguments that perhaps are contrary to conventional arguments about smallness. That is hardly surprising because it is difficult to pin down a general argument about a particular policy issue as far as the Pacific is concerned.

A good example is arguments on competition. The conventional view is that because of scale problems, competition cannot succeed. Those who share this view are historians bent on promoting classical arguments to justify that lack of demand because of smallness for example means that competition cannot succeed. If we all follow this view then I think the future is a lousy one and we can never improve shipping, aviation and telecommunication.

I think the innovative view has to be that supply can create its own demand. Applied to the Pacific, even for Small Island States, and provided the right policy and regulatory systems are in place, competition can work as the Survey says.

I was on the Steering Group when the Survey was being written and from the outset I found it a productive process – there was a genuine will to make a constructive contribution to the debate about development in the shipping, aviation and telecommunication sectors in the Pacific.

And it is in the spirit that I welcome you today and hope everyone will enjoy the morning’s discussions.

Thank you.