Managing our resources
p. 27 · Read in the full issue
PAPUA New Guinea will host the South Pacific Forum next year to coincide with the country s 20th
independence anniversary along with the
Republic of the Marshall Islands hosting the 1996 Forum. It will be the first time for the government on Majuro to host a summit of South Pacific leaders.
In 1997, the Cook Islands will host the 28th South Pacific Forum it’s third since the Forum began over two decades ago. These dates were decided at the 25th Forum in Brisbane last month.
Like the Cook Islands, the Brisbane Forum was Australia’s third time to host the meeting. Australia’s Prime Minister Paul Keating who took over the rotating chairmanship of the Forum this year from President Bernard Dowiyogo of Nauru, said he was “impressed” with the outcome of the Forum (Nauru was the host of the Forum last year). At the leaders’ retreat held at the Japanese owned Kooralbyn resort in the Gold
Coast hinterland, Prime Minister Keating was also selected as the Forum spokesman.
“Overall, I think the meeting clearly shows the understand ing that South Pacific leaders have, of the urgent challenges we face. And the thing that impressed, I must say, particularly, was the political will that they all showed in seeking to manage those challenges, and their willingness to actually grasp the nettle on big problems,” Keating told a news conference afterwards.
“I think the Forum has again proven its value as an institution.” Indeed, Keating said that Pacific leaders felt quite proud of the achievements of their meeting this year.
Perhaps what set this year’s Forum quite apart from past meetings was the selection of a theme which ensured that leaders’ discussions and deliberations were focused. The focus this year’s was on the theme Mangaging Our Resources a timely theme which has undoubtedly sent an alert signal that Pacific island countries may not be getting what they should be receiving for their limited, but invaluable resources countries were receiving a combined revenue of only A $74 million in revenue each year. This amount represents between two to four per cent of landed catch which, according to one estimate, is valued at As 2 billion a year worth of fish hauled from Forum Island countries’ waters.
In the forestry sector, the picture is almost the same.
According to a recent study commissioned by the Australian government in preparation for the Brisbane Forum, some countries in the region were losing the equivalent of half their current national income through ineffective monitoring of
logging exports.
The Forum also endorsed the undertaking by the Leaders of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to examine uniform legislation, procedures and practices in forest resources.
In fisheries, there’s overwhelming support to develop a multilateral approach to negotiating access to fisheries resources in the Forum Countries’ combined Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which covers an estimated 29.1 million square kilometres across the Pacific Ocean. Talks are expected to be held in December with Deep Water Fishing Nations (DWFNS) which do not have such an arrangement with Forum countries. At present only the United States of America has a multilateral fishing arrangement with Forum nations under which Pacific Island Countries receive about
USIIO million annually in fishing rights fees.
The Forum leaders have also agreed to tackle the problem bedevilling some of the region’s airlines which now have annual combined losses of around AS 108 million which is equivalent to the level of aid provided to the region by Australia and New Zealand
annually.
Options for rationalisation of air services, perhaps on a sub-regional basis would be examined. Oper ators and civil aviation authorities of Forum countries will soon meet to prepare a proposal on the matter for Forum heads of governments.
Common problems of public sector and fiscal management would also be addressed. It is expected that Finance Ministers of the 15 member nations of the South Pacific Forum will meet before next
year’s Forum to look at ways of accommodating fiscal adjustments in national budgets. To be funded by Australia, the meeting will consider a number of policy initiatives
including devising appropriate policy responses which
maximise opportunities, but at the same time lessen threats resulting from changes to the global economic environment.
Among other things, the Ministers are expected to look at ways of broadening the economic base of Forum countries with a view to increasing international competitiveness and productivity and improving the balance of payments through imports reduction and adoption of procurement, conservation and efficient policies.
A range of other issues was also discussed by Forum leaders.
On human resources, for instance, Forum leaders agreed that sustainable development is critical with education being the key to the effective management of the region’s natural resources. Hence, the one-day meeting endorsed the Suva Declaration on Sustainable Development in the Pacific, underlining the importance of the quality of life in the context of Pacific Islands cultures.
For the first time, recognition was given to the centrality of indigenous rights and customs and the special relationship indigenous people have with their land. Australia announced it will provide AS6 million to help island athletes from the Forum Island countries prepare for the Sydney 2000
Olympic.
The other is that it will contribute A 5900,000 towards a Foreign Investment Advisory Service office to be established in Sydney. This office is expected to support further quality investment in the region as well as to improve product development, market research and to overcome non-tariff barriers to trade. New Zealand’s decision to reduce by five per cent the Rule of Origin requirements to 45 per cent for garment imports under the South Pacific Regional Trade and
.egional Economic Co-operation Agreement (SPARTECA)
was also welcomed.
New Zealand has also spearheaded contributions towards the establishment of a South Pacific Representative Office in Tokyo by announcing it will provide N£s2oo,ooo. To realise their seriousness about such an office, Forum Island Countries have agreed to allocate 10 per cent of their annual assessed contributions to the Forum Secretariat’s regular budget for this cause. With the assistance of the government of Japan, the proposed office is expected to promote trade, investment and tourism between Japan and the FICs. □