PALAU: Pacific Islands Forum focuses on labour
Updated
Economic ministers of island countries belonging to the Pacific Islands Forum have concluded their annual meeting in the small island of Palau, in the northern Pacific. As in previous meetings, the ministers discussed a wide range of issues including labour mobility and a regional customs agency.
Presenter: Fiji correspondent Samisoni Pareti
PARETI: Two days of meeting and economic ministers of Pacific Islands Forum member countries issued a seven-page action plan for 2007. The plan talks about public economic reform commitments, regional integration and regulation. Forum Secretary General Greg Urwin told journalists that labour mobility was discussed and Australia's present policy on it came under the spotlight again.
URWIN: I think it's fair to say that they took note of what was a very and almost unanimous expression of view in favour of progressing this issue. And of course they took notice and they said to what is starting to appear to be quite successful or potentially successful scheme that New Zealand is operating.
PARETI: This year the ministers had to grapple with the perception that island economies need to see more action not just talk. This point was put to them by Rick Hou, the Governor of the Central Bank of Solomon Islands who was invited to deliver the keynote address at the very first day of the meeting.
Mr Urwin believes implementation will continue to be an issue since member countries are now forced to implement decisions taken at such meetings.
URWIN: Ours is a voluntary regional cooperation and in the end it is the member states that have to take up the measures that they think worthwhile and run with them and reject the ones that they don't think are worthwhile. Now from regional sources they can be supported in their decisions to take action in all sorts of ways, but it's the member governments that have to take the decisions.
PARETI: One such decision of the ministers is the formation of a south regional customs service. Mr Urwin says a feasibility study will have to be done on the concept.
URWIN: As well all know particularly now at the smaller countries, they like larger countries have to resource and run a whole range of government agencies. And inevitably in circumstances of limited budgets some agencies win and some agencies lose. And the emphasis in this as on a whole range of our regional activity these days is identifying those areas where we might on a regional basis, that is by providing a regional service funded from sources external to the countries concerned, might be able to support national efforts. The whole thing is all about providing regional backstopping, regional support for necessary national services.
PARETI: A side issue that developed out of this weeks' meeting is the continuing ban of journalists from attending these sessions. Journalists petitioned the meeting chair, Mr Urwin about the need for more openness all being that all sessions with the exception of the ministerial retreat should be open if the foreign ministers are to live up to the principles of accountability and transparency they place themselves to.
URWIN: I need to say to you that what you were petitioning for would represent a very considerable departure from forum practice. I don't rule it out on those grounds, I mean we've been working for the last couple of years to open up these meetings as much as we can and you'll now find for example that the NGO community has got access to a range of our meetings in a way that wasn't the case before. Frankly it's a bit of a step to take it as far as your petition did. But it's a moving frontier.
PARETI: Throughout this week's ministerial session Palau's Finance Minister, Elbuchel Sadang apologised for the media ban saying the matter should have been raised with them directly and not through forum officials, implying that the ministers would have opened up their meetings if requested.
