Industry unite

Islands Chambers of Commerce, Industry unite

A Federation of Pacific Islands Chambers of Commerce and In dustry (FPICCI) has been form ed. Its purpose is to co-ordinate private enterprise activities and promote trade among the Pacific Islands countries.

The move follows recent ef forts by the President of the Papua New Guinea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, John Cruikshank, to locate and com municate with all Chambers of Commerce in the region.

The idea originated at a semi nar in 1979 jointly sponsored by the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Trade Centre division of the Un ited Nations.

The African-Caribbean- Pacific group of countries, made up of developing countries re ceiving aid from the European Economic Community under the Lome Convention, has also ac tively assisted in the establish ment of the federation.

In June this year Ray Dunstan, now president of the Suva Cham ber of Commerce, and Mr Cruik shank attended a meeting in Brussels convened by the ACP group specifically to launch simi lar federations throughout the de veloping regions of the world. A further meeting will be held in Fiji in February 1983 to consider the progress of the various feder ations and further development and co-operation between the

regions.

Mr Dunstan emphasised that the federation was open to all economic operator organisations in the region, not just those bear ing the title of Chamber of Com merce. It is hoped that all such organisations in each country will recognise a single body to represent them on the federation.

All national private enterprise

representative organisations in

the region have been advised and have been sent a report of the Brussels meeting. It is hoped to convene a meeting to elect offic ers and discuss a number of

administrative matters in the near future.

Mr Cruikshank is at present visiting all Chambers of Com merce and similar organisations in the Pacific region on an exer cise jointly sponsored by the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation and the International Trade Centre and funded by the United Nations Development Program. His task will be to assess the resources and needs of chambers to allow them to play a more positive role in trade promotion and export development in conjunction with the corresponding government agencies.

Mr Cruikshank said he hoped that a formally organised private sector network in the region would facilitate more effective use of financial and technical assistance being offered to the region by various international aid programs. He said that con certed and collective activities in imports and exports could lead to a substantial increase in intra regional and overseas trade, bringing tangible benefits to par ticipating countries.