Island delegates

Kudos for Pacific Island delegates to CRGA

Noumea, new Caledo nia - The 28th session of the annual governing council of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) ended with the SPC deputy direc tor-general Dr Jimmie Rodgers saluting representatives of Pacific Island govern ments for their role in the week-long deliberations.

This year’s session of the SPC Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations (CRGA) was unique, in that, it was the first time that island government repre sentatives were given decision-making powers. In past years, it was only the SPC’s South Pacific Conference which held this privilege.

The decision to provide more power to the CRGA came about following endorse ment of a recommendation at Saipan in 1996 to hold the South Pacific Conference every two years, as opposed to its previous annual basis. “This year’s meeting went particularly well consider

ing the sometimes difficult agenda,” Dr Rodgers said of the 1998 CRGA session.

“For most members, the decision-mak ing powers bestowed upon them were a new challenge to which they adopted a region-wide approach and adapted to extremely well.” Dr Rodgers praised what he termed the “rationality and clear think ing” which prevailed throughout the debates, particularly the extended debate on a nine-and-a-half per cent salary adjustment for SPC staff, proposed to come into effect from January 1, 1999.

The CRGA has now approved the organisation’s 1999 budget, with the salary issue being given the green light in principle, subject to the outcome of the Forum Official’s Committee (FOG) meet ing scheduled to be held later this month.

Other regional organisations such as the South Pacific Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) and the South Pacific Environment Programme (SPREP) were also awaiting FOG endorsement on the same issue. ■

Decision-making powers given to island government representatives at the SPC Conuncil meeting have led to them adopting a region wide approach, rethaer than localised decisions