Mr. W. Noel Levi, CBE
Secretary General
South Pacific Forum Secretariat
Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen:
1. I am honoured to Chair this session Pacific Islands: Issues and Opportunities before such a distinguished group and at this point in the history of the development of the Pacific Islands.
2. While my overview will be understandably general and I apologise in advance for summarising some of the aspects of Pacific Islands development that will be highly familiar to many of you, I am very grateful for the opportunity to set the scene for discussion at this important meeting.
3. The South Pacific Forum, soon to become the Pacific Islands Forum, represents 16 member countries scattered throughout the Pacific. Fourteen of these are regarded as Forum Island Countries in difference stages of development. The Forum Secretariat, which I represent here today, is distinguished by being the primary regional policy body for the members and for having its core budget largely paid for by its members. Understandably my perspective is a regional perspective and it is a regional overview that I wish to provide now.
4. From the view point of the South Pacific Forum, the key features of our region are its immense geographic spread, its tiny land and population base and relative lack of resources, and its vulnerability to the economic and natural shocks which inevitably impact on its physical infrastructure and economic development. There are few regions of the world combining such frequent exposure to the natural hazards of cyclones, tsunamis, volcanism and imported pests with dependence on a few fragile commodity markets and fickle tourist income.
5. From a social viewpoint, the region is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse in the world. Its small population base and cultural and linguistic diversity, coupled with relatively low gross domestic product levels, have permitted the region's nations to develop only small and fragile public institutions with limited capacity to assist and support the communities which make up the countries. Unsurprisingly there has been an unfortunate level of social instability in the region, particularly in recent years; although, given many countries' diversity, I for one, am surprised there has been so little social unrest. If one now adds the global pressures of economic and trade liberalisation, globalisation of production and services and declining aid levels, the picture can indeed be said to be gloomy.
6. I do not believe this to be the case. Our region has great strengths, its remoteness and relatively pristine environments are a substantial asset in an increasingly homogenised, urbanised and shrinking globe; in terms of education we have some of the highest average levels of English literacy and education in the world; the region nations' similarly have a strong commitment to democracy, economic reform and maintenance of traditional cultures, and to action as a regional group.
7. What then are the Forum countries seeking to do regionally? First, Forum countries are building on their common concerns and successes in respect to nuclear issues and climate change to work on more active involvement with ACP countries and in respect to regional security cooperation. In this latter capacity the Forum has adopted common policies and approaches in Honiara, and more recently Aitutaki, to control the impact of global criminal activities and to encourage preventive diplomacy where domestic or regional conflicts have the potential to develop into more serious forms of civil dissent. The Forum Secretariat is also working actively to strengthen domestic institutions in terms of statistical collection, regional planning, gender policy, business policies and to encourage trade and investment.
8. The region has acted cohesively to research, and to encourage other institutions to research measures of vulnerability to use as the criterion for development assistance rather than relying purely on economic measures. Such economic measures clearly discriminate against countries whose economic circumstances may vary widely from decade to decade or from month to month on the vagaries of tropical cyclones or international markets.
9. In terms of institutional strengthening, the Forum has adopted the Forum Economic Ministers Action Plan to encourage more flexible and open economies. Key elements of the Action Plan are :
10. All the Forum countries are currently actively seeking to implement these principles with the intention of developing economies which are better able to absorb shocks, which can take advantage of new global growth opportunities and which can utilise aid more effectively.
11. By any standard, however, the majority of Forum Island Countries are very small, and their prospects of making major contributions to the global economy very limited. Their size means that they have limited natural resources, including land, small domestic markets and high per capita infrastructure costs. These difficulties are compounded by isolation from the rest of the world through distance and lack of international transport services. The Forum has made several pivotal decisions recently which, with goodwill and continued effort, will significantly alleviate these apparent handicaps.
12. Most recently in 1999 Leaders endorsed the development of a Regional Free Trade Agreement. The benefits of the potential economies of scale generated by the creation of a single market, initially of 6 million people, rather than 14 fragmented markets should be obvious to anyone from the business community. Free trade will also encourage regional cooperation in areas of trade facilitation such as customs, quarantine, standards and statistics that will permit economies of scale in the supply of specialised government services.
13. While it is not possible to deal with the problem of physical isolation of the region from the rest of the world and global markets, it is possible to deal with the economic consequences of that isolation. It is in the area of telecommunications that globalisation has had the most positive benefit for Forum Island countries. The development of new information technologies has made physical isolation less relevant, especially to service providers. The free trade area proposal has provisions for eventually deepening the relationship beyond goods to include services. Such service agreements will allow participating countries to append protocols on telecommunications, shipping and air services that will create a larger and unified market, thereby lowering costs of these services. Forum Ministers responsible for civil aviation and telecommunications are in fact currently in the process of developing such agreements. In this way the costs of isolation will be diminished.
14. I started this overview with a picture which emphasises the negative aspects of the Pacific. I believe, however, that many of these apparent obstacles are in fact opportunities and that, with the continued cooperation of the Forum members, and the willingness of the leaders to act cohesively and determinedly to confront the challenges our physical circumstances and the current wave of global change present there are good prospects for significant improvement in members' well being over the next decade and more.
15. I trust that many of you will share this prognosis and I look forward to our discussions today.
16. I now open the meeting for contributions.