It's the month
p. 17 · Read in the full issue
for folks
The Fifth Conference of the South Pacific Forum will be held for three days from March 20 on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.
This is the first full meeting of Island territories in the Cooks but it will not be the last. In September, the Fourteenth South Pacific Conference will also be held in Rarotonga.
The Forum is expected to have three busy days because its Bureau for Economic Co-opera tion (SPEC) will have several reports to table. One, a report on the much-talked-of regional ship ping line, is expected to occupy the Island leaders for some con siderable time.
Four days before the Forum Conference opens, another Island association will have voted itself out of existence. This is the Pacific Islands Producers As sociation (PIPA) which at a two day meeting beginning on March 15 on Rarotonga, will wind up and make way for SPEC. It has been agreed that SPEC should take over PIPA’s functions.
Rarotonga will host a third All- Islands conference this year, the 14th South Pacific Conference, provisionally scheduled for Sep tember 23-October 4. The dates may be affected by the talks in Wellington between March 5-7 over the proposed merger of the Commission and the Conference.