‘better deal’

Islands want a ‘better deal’

South Pacific Forum countries united in a call for a better economic deal when their rep resentatives addressed the 1979 annual joint meeting of the In ternational Monetary Fund and the World Bank in

Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

The speakers, including

those from Fiji, Western Samoa and Papua New Guinea, adopted similar and familiar themes.

Western Samoa’s Minister of Finance, Vaovasamanaia (Reg) Phillips, said the end of the 1970 s was being reached on a discouraging note and that in some vital areas, small states

were losing ground.

‘What is so difficult for Third World countries to under stand,’ he said, ‘is why, when it

is really only political will that

is needed on behalf of the de veloped countries in order to make considerable progress towards a more equitable inter

national economic order, that will should be so fleeting.’ ‘lt is frustrating to hear industrialised countries pay lip service to trade liberalisation at the same time as they increase protectionism,’ he said.

Papua New Guinea’s Finance Minister, Barry

Holloway, said his country’s

economy had progressed dur ing the past year ‘but this sense of satisfaction is substantially clouded by the knowledge that . . . Papua New Guinea is sus ceptible to external shocks which are almost entirely be yond its control. ‘There is little small coun tries can do to anticipate the arrival of new economic crises. ‘Smaller states have a greater interest in a stable world econ omy than big countries because of their limited ability to insulate themselves, against

instability and uncertainty,’ he

said.