 On behalf of the Pacific ambassadors and permanent representatives of the Washington and New York areas, we welcome all of you to Pacific Day 2014. Pacific Day, as those of you that know, it's been around for a long time, but it's normally hosted by the Washington Pacific Committee, which consists of the embassies and offices of Pacific Island countries, states, territories represented in Washington and New York. My name's Murray Hebert. I work on the Pacific Partners Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS, and we're co-sponsoring this event and we try to have events and writings that try to raise awareness and stimulate discussion on the Pacific Island issues in Washington. This year, we're very lucky, thanks to Secretary of State John Kerry that he hosted an Oceans Conference here the last two days. As a result, we have a number of leaders, ministers, and experts from the Pacific here with us. The importance of the Pacific is obviously known to everybody in the Pacific Island countries for whom the ocean is both fundamental for their economies, cultures, and their environment. We're going to begin this seminar this afternoon with a few short speeches by some of the leaders that are visiting from the region. The first speaker will be the Honorable Tony DeBroom, who is the Foreign Minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. He's the current Chair of the Pacific Island Forum, the PIF. Before taking on his role earlier this year as Foreign Minister, he had a distinguished role in various other government posts, various other government posts back home. Thank you. Please, Foreign Minister. Your Excellency, Mr. President, Tamira Magsal, colleague ministers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. I see many friends here that I haven't seen for many years. I'm delighted to be back in Washington. Normally, I would take what has been prepared for me to recite and say whatever I please. However, I'm being disciplined because I've been told I speak for the forum, and our President is the chairman. I'm merely his minister. As the current Chair of the Pacific Island Forum, which we will soon pass to my good friend, the President of Palau in July. But on behalf of President Christopher Loyach and the people of the Marshall Islands, I bring you warm Yahweh and welcome to Pacific Day. I'm honored to be here in D.C. in the company of so many brothers and sisters of the Pacific and so many friends from time gone by. Our islands had the honor and pleasure not only to welcome many of you to the forum last September, but also to serve as forum chair during an intense year of regional activity. We have already started working with Palau as incoming chair and look forward to a gathering next month, which as the very first forum communicates stated, is among neighbors and friends. Together we will have important work to do in preparation for the Global Summit of Small Island Developing States in September, which will be hosted by our good friends in Samoa. But it is well past the hour when the international community can do a better job responding to the unique characteristics of small island states. The summit's theme of genuine and durable partnerships is a key opportunity to bring forward our own Pacific ambitions for a sustainable future, balancing growth and respect for the environment. The recent meeting of this meeting that just concluded yesterday are still actually still going on oceans that our good friend Secretary John Kerry called here in DC. Emphasizes the pivotal role island nations must play in advancing global action on fisheries and oceans. We are truly thrilled that Palau has chosen a theme on oceans for this year's forum, which ensures that we can raise the Pacific voice to help spur stronger political will around the world. Pacific leaders can stand as true stewards of one of the world's most important but often neglected resources. Together with our partners, we can tell the true story of sustainable development that profit and conservation can in fact coexist. This is why forum members have pushed so hard for a dedicated global goal of oceans in the United Nations post-2015 sustainable development agenda. The Pacific Forum has a unique legacy. As small islands and partners, we bridge the gap between large and small, rich and poor, united together in a common Pacific spirit and regional identity. As forum islands, we have accounted for successes and some shortcomings in meeting the UN's Millennium Development Goals. But this year, the forum stands at the edge of challenging decisions. In reviewing the Pacific plan, leaders considered not only Pacific alignment, a policy alignment in administrative reforms, but also the core issue of our Pacific regional identity. Looking forward, we hope and expect that the forum will foster and the emerging political voice of all Pacific small island nations and also strengthen a truly mutual engagement with our closest metropolitan members of Australia and New Zealand, as well as our fast-growing list of post-forum dialogue partners. Last September in Maduro, forum leaders adopted the Maduro Declaration for Climate Leadership. This declaration sets to the world a framework in which all of us, small and large, end the finger-pointing and take the strongest possible action together to confront the impacts of climate change. As the Pacific, we can stand together as one in confronting our regions and our world's most important long-term security challenge. These are impacts we see now, and they will only become more intense in the years and decades to come. But on one thing, there is no disagreement. On one thing, we are fully united, and that is that we will leave this world and the Blue Ocean a better place than we found it, for our children, for our grandchildren, for all future generations to come. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Foreign Minister De Bruyne. As our next speaker, it gives me great pleasure to welcome the Honorable Tony Roman Gesu, Gesu who is the President of the Republic of Palau, which is the host of the 2014 PIF form. Prior to his current post, he had various other positions, including serving as Vice President, Minister of the Administration, and he had a key role in Palau's transition to independence. President Roman Gesu, please. Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, it's always good to be among the company of fellow brothers and sisters of the Pacific, and certainly among friends and fellow children of the ocean. Before I say a few remarks, I do want to begin by thanking Ambassador Mike Moore and the government and people of New Zealand kindly hosting this Pacific event, and I do understand that over the years, this event has become an expected event to really showcase the diversities of the Pacific and the unity of these diversities. So can we give a big hand to the ambassador and the people of New Zealand? Thank you. Folks, this has been a tremendous good week, and I would say a very successful week for the agenda of the Pacific. The fact that the United States hosted a conference on the ocean has really highlighted and showcased the very important issues for all of us out there in the Pacific. And I think with the U.S. role and leadership, we can only expect good things to come out of the whole issue on the ocean. Lest we forget, the Millennium Development Goals are coming up for negotiations, and so it is important that we as Pacific Islanders focus and support the notion to have the ocean as a stand-alone agenda when it comes to the floor of the United Nations later on. Having the ocean as a stand-alone agenda can only help to focus on the effects of climate change, global warming, ocean acidification, pollution, overfishing, you name it. All the issues that are out there for our very survival in essence as a people and as island nations, all of these can be focused around the ocean. And so I think it's important that the United States is leading the mission, and I do want to recognize the contributions that have been made this week. If you read the newspapers and follow the news developments, all those commitments that have been made this week, including the initiatives made by the Obama Administration, are really going to trigger a global response that can only be a good thing collectively for all of us. And so as Pacific Island children, I think we need to also be unified in emphasizing a very important point, and that is we are no longer talking about the threat or the facing the threat of the myriad of problems facing the ocean. We are already living it. So there's a big difference upon people still waiting for the impact of all of these myriads of problems to happen. We are in fact living the dangers of what everybody is talking about. Then there's the other point that I know even our partners and development partners, everyone wants to be a partner, but the big question for us as Islanders is, what are we doing for ourselves? What do we bring to the table? And I think this is where the issue of marine protected areas is a very concrete contribution that Island nations can bring to the table. We have to do what is within our power to also address the issues and address the solutions and address the mitigation and adaptations that are necessary to be out there. So the Palau Marine Sanctuary is only a part of the marine protected area initiative that many of the Pacific Island countries are doing, whether it's Cook Island, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Palau, I mentioned Cook Islands, and many other nations out there in the Pacific. We're all doing our share of really protecting our oceans and reefs. And as I mentioned the other day, folks, we are not advocating a one-size-fits-all formula. I think all of us can collectively bring to the table what we're able to do in terms of these marine protected areas. For Palau, we are proposing our entire 200-mile exclusive economic zone while reserving a small portion of that for our domestic food security and also our economic endeavors. But we know that we can do a big contribution to not only Palau but to the region as far as the regional effort to also protect and preserve our oceans. People may ask why this is such an ambitious thing to do, but I would just like to remind that the Micronesia region actually has already started years ago the first challenge of what we call the Micronesia Challenge, and that started by preserving at least 30% of the marine environment and 20% of the forest. So many of the islands, the governments in the region, which is the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Saipan, and Guam are already committed to protecting 30% of their marine environment. So having a bigger sanctuary is a natural progression from what has already been a successful endeavor. And the Micronesian Trust has also been established and it has proven to be a very successful partnership because we are matching the contributions of our partners and the money that comes into the fund is helping the protected area networks that are spread out throughout Micronesia. For Palau itself, we have a green fee of $50 and people pay that knowing that it doesn't go to the government coffers, it goes to a very special program and the protection of the environment. We are picking up from the success and declaration of the Marshall Islands declaration, marshalling the response to climate change. We're going to further focus on the issues which actually has been the... not the same issue, but the important issue year after year regarding the oceans and we will continue to do that until we have a collective effort internationally in combating climate change, global warming and all the dangers confronting the ocean. Finally, let me just say that one of the initiatives that I want to ask of us as children of the Pacific is that it would be a really good thing and within our own power to do so to declare the whole Pacific region as a shark sanctuary. Many of us, many of the governments in the region have already done that and I know that a live shark is worth millions more than a dead shark. And so finally, folks, I do want to use this opportunity and say that oftentimes we as islanders tend to say we inherited the environment from our ancestors. But I think in these day and age we need to look forward and say we are simply borrowing the environment from our future children. I thank you so much. So while we're getting miked up here I just want to mention we're going to open it now up, open up the floor for a few minutes for questions from the in going, the outgoing and incoming PIF chairs. So if you have questions please raise your hand. I'll identify you and then we'll there'll be some mic runners that will give you a mic and then please identify yourself by name and organization and then we'll have the two speakers answer your questions. Thank you. Are we working now? Is it working? Hello, hello. Okay, do we have questions for our two speakers? We're very shy. So could I ask you maybe for both of you participated in the conference, our oceans conference. In terms of the PIF going forward, do you see some very specific ideas, initiatives that were proposed that you think you can use in the PIF going forward? Question for either one of you. Well, as I said, one of the the biggest thing that we can take going to the to the forum perhaps is the knowing that this is no longer a secluded issue for us that we can begin to discuss partnerships as we go to the forum. There were a lot of initiatives specifically the port, the initiative on pirate products that I think can also go a long way to support IOU activities around the region. There was also the initiative regarding enforcement, the initiatives on research. All of these that were kind of announced at the ocean forum can only be a good guidelines to take to the forum. But as I mentioned, the main objective we believe is that we come out of the forum with a united effort, a specific islanders to have a clear cut policy and importance of the ocean leading to the small island development states conference in Samoa later on in September. And then after that, it's on to the United Nations with the Pacific agenda. There's a question. Yes, please. Thanks, David Shepard, director general of SPREP, the regional environment program in the Pacific. Question to president of Palau if you could comment on some of the economic benefits through tourism associated with the declaration of the MPA and also the Rock Island World Heritage Site. President, and a question to minister De Bruyne, we have a number of big events coming up in our region, the forum, then the SIDS event, then the SPREP ministers meeting in late September. How can we most strategically take advantage of this as a region for our benefit, including to move forward most effectively on these fantastic commitments from the oceans conference this week? Thank you. Well, I'll just say a few things on that. You know, one of the points that was mentioned the other day that can only fit the Pacific islands is that we need to move towards science and what the facts tell us through scientific research and studies. I think too often we have been focused on the economic negotiations and so the conference focus on those things can only be a good thing for all of us. And then one of the important complementary issue that was raised up, of course, is the issues and the high seas, what happens over there beyond the territorial technologies of the islands, the leadership of nations like the United States, then we can certainly not only maximize our economic values, but also the sustainable programs that we're all trying to do out there in the islands. So I foresee the coming meetings of Pacific islanders, whether it's SEEDS or SPREP or the UN, our issues are definitely highlighted and I mentioned briefly the enforcement that can, will go a long way just by having the United States come and board because we don't have the resources quite frankly to protect our MPAs, but with the technologies that's out there we don't have to reinvent the technology, it's a matter of sharing and partnering and sharing the resources to help make it a sustainable and ocean for all of us. Six meetings in Samoa as well as the SPREP meeting in Metro later this year. I think our opportunities that are lining up towards the Secretary General Summit as well as the upcoming meetings in Paris leading to the climate change agreement that we all should take advantage of. The countries of the country members of PIF and their partners I think are a very formidable force in pushing ahead ideas of conservation and climate change in the Pacific but not only in the Pacific in recent times the United States has been kind to invite us to participate in some of the meetings that they host that they have not had participation from small island countries before such as the major economic forum meeting which we are also invited to participate later this year. But I think the most important contribution as the President has pointed out earlier is that the small island countries of the Pacific are not playing the perennial role of the Pacific native sitting under the coconut tree waiting for the coconut to fall. We are actually taking a leadership position in climate change. We are sounding out and we are putting the issue to the table where it comes and the calling of this meeting by Secretary Kerry and the United States hosting this meeting the last two days is I think a culmination of that effort. I think it shows and it demonstrates to the world that yes the United States is going to step in now. Not only did Secretary Secretary Kerry come to bat at this meeting he brought in President Obama to say a few words of encouragement and then to top it all off he brought in Leonardo DiCaprio and when Hollywood gets involved you can see movement and I think this all was part of the beauty of this meeting. It combined the efforts of states of organizations of NGOs of young people of young people who stayed throughout all the sessions of this meeting and participated fully. I think the completeness of that is a demonstration that we have in fact scored. Our voices have now been heard we can move forward together to resolve some of our most critical issues. There are other questions in the back? Many many thanks Angus Friday, Grenada's ambassador to the United States formerly Oceans Representative at the World Bank and formerly Ambassador of Grenada to the U.N. We're now on the privilege to chair the Alliance of Small Island States. Mr. de Bruyne we've had a number of exchanges now and my question is about how we might be able to use the upcoming SIDS conference in Samoa for two purposes and that is the idea of bringing together the green and the blue economy and also the idea of promoting this thing that's been talked about where we no longer refer to ourselves as small island developing states but ocean states or great ocean states so if you will great ocean developing states I'll let you work it out. But Minister de Bruyne you've been a pioneer and you've been a champion for OTECH Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion and for many institutions this is still seen as an R&D project but if we can make it happen this is going to be something which can transform energy not just for islands but can help to transform the very issues that we're dealing with with climate change and so my question is how can we do two things how can we use the SIDS international conference in Samoa to promote and to really catalyze and catapult the idea of ocean thermal energy conversion recognizing that it still needs a lot of work but we will be the ones as islands to benefit and how can we further promote this idea of ocean states and get more funding etc to the very cause that we all associate with thank you. Thank you my good friend Ambassador Friday we have in spite of discouragement along the way that this technology is still in the R&D stage promoted the idea that it is in fact ready for prime time we are talking here about a technology that can transform the four of the most vulnerable states in the world Tuvalu, Kiribati Marshalls other island FSM perhaps even the Maldives into self-sufficiency in energy and water biggest problem with small island country the most important resources of fisheries and tourism is that we have energy that is unaffordable and a lack of water for the most part most of our countries do not have access to those building blocks of our economy but as Ambassador Friday says OTEC provides an answer to those basic building blocks it will allow us for example, Maduro exports to China on an annual basis close to $1.8 billion worth of raw fish of course it's not all Marshallies fish but it's fish collected from the DNA of the neighboring countries trans shipped out of the Maduro port the value derived from that export for the Marshall Islands is barely more than $10 or $12 million a year if we could add value to that we can have countries that are always classified as economic basket cases to be net exporters of energy within the decade we do not need large amounts of money to be invested in this in this new technology because it is it does require some capital intensive investment however in the case of the Marshalls we have been working with the United States Department of Defense to allow for a power purchase agreement which would allow fightermen to purchase from us power generated by the OTEC plant that we expect to build soon that would allow for private public investment in such a plant it would then allow this technology to be translated to other areas of the Pacific especially the close neighbors of Kiribati and my choice in Micronesia are true I think that we have all the ingredients together we have all the necessary technological groups together we have the builders together and it will be just a matter of getting a good memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Army before we move forward on this we also want to share this on an extensive basis with SIDS the reason that it had it is necessary for us to step back and do it on a private basis before we move into the SIDS arena is that SIDS had the opportunity to fund the first feasibility study for this technology in the Pacific all the SIDS country members endorse the marshals as the primary candidate for the technology however when the money came filtering down the various layers of bureaucracy including World Bank it ended up in this decision we think that there should be a pre-pre feasibility study done on this so it's I think that's an example of the kind of problems that the small island countries have marrying up resources with need and we should also stop thinking of producing feasibility studies that apply on a world scale for projects that should be dedicated to resolving immediate change that translate into the larger picture of eliminating problems with global warming and pollution of the earth I think we have that in this technology and we will continue to pursue it with bigger thank you thank you thank you very much for your insights appreciate it next speaker is the Honorable Lauren Robert who is the Foreign Minister of the Federated States of Micronesia who will outline some of the key priorities of his country prior to becoming Foreign Minister Honorable Mr. Robert served in various roles within his country but also within the United Nations ADB World Bank and also was involved in various nuclear and fisheries agreements and agreement negotiations Foreign Minister Robert please thank you thank you Master of Ceremony your Excellencies distinguished guests fellow Pacific Islanders friends of the Pacific at the outset allow me to pay my personal respect good disease and compliments to all of you and of course including our good friends from the United States the officials and dignitaries who are with us this afternoon I I I I it is my great pleasure and honor to speak before you in this important seminar and I am most grateful for the invitation to participate as mentioned earlier today a specific day and it is exceptionally well-timed this year taking place following immediately the international conference on our ocean that was convened by Secretary Kerry over the last two days to which I reiterate President Mori and the entire leadership of the FSM our appreciation and gratitude to Secretary Kerry for his leadership and vision in organizing a very very successful conference one of its kind my little daughter will say it's awesome the current international focus on the health of the ocean is very much welcome and encouraging the Pacific Islanders and I also commend the organizers of this seminar for maintaining the momentum of success of the conference and for giving us another forum today to further amplify the importance of our ocean as it relates to our Pacific situation the ongoing global discussion on oceans have exemplified the spirit of constructive collaboration and partnership that is the very heart of our Pacific way wherever the welfare of our people is at stake especially our children the children of our children and future generations the Pacific way must continue to be our guide ladies and gentlemen the entire human race is a beneficiary of the ocean and we must make every effort to bring into sharp focus the special case of our island people our way of life is very much bound to the health of the ocean and proper management of its resources for many of our islands in the Pacific the income generated from the tuna industry is our single most largest and important source of income in the Pacific that we are known as Rematau meaning that we are peoples of the sea our Rematau as people of the sea has deep meaning and enduring implications our very existence is defined by our ocean which imposes upon us a special sacred duty to love and to respect the sea and to continue to be responsible towards of the ocean our world is the ocean itself for the very very simple reason that the seas bring us together they do not separate us our islands sustain us our island nation enlarges us and make us stronger ladies and gentlemen these are not my words they are from the preamble of the FSM national constitution across the oceans of the world we are informed by scientists and experts that our resources are facing depletion and contamination and in a cruel twist of fate the ocean is now an antagonist of our small Pacific islands where sea level rise where water temperatures increase where coastline erode and where storm surges become more intense sadly overfishing illegal harvesting acidification are seriously threatening the boundaries of the sea where we have to come to rely on for sustenance at our villages the pelagic species of the entire Pacific region face similar dire situation furthermore increasing climate warming may in fact alter our normal medication patterns of suspicious to the detriment of our Pacific region it is therefore we in the FSM have witnessed first and the toll taken by sea level rise and other adverse impacts of climate change and we note more so for our brothers and sisters on their tolls in Kiribati still and Marshall Islands all of us are developing plans for adaptation to climate change however all the planning in the world will do us no good if we do not find ways to address the root cause of the problem by finding collective ways to reduce greenhouse gases and other climate change pollutants right now the FSM has enacted a climate change law and adopted and integrated disaster risk reduction and climate change policy we have also contributed to some innovative proposals for climate change medication to the ongoing international negotiations for most and among there is our proposal amendment to the Montreal protocol to face down production and consumption of hydroflow carbons HFCs because if adopted this strategy would complement reductions of CO2 emissions and would provide fast action medication because most of HFCs are much more potent than CO2s but do not last in the atmosphere very long furthermore it would slow or halt the climate warming and rising sea levels across the globe we believe that a victory on HFCs under Montreal protocol next year would build critical momentum for a successful outcome at the UNFCCC COP 21 in Paris next year we also continue to pin high hopes on the world community to address long-term problem of CO2 emissions under UNFCC reducing CO2 is paramount for controlling warming and the certification that is affecting health of our ocean we are encouraged by the recent developments with respect to the clean climate fund and progress last week in Bonn I commend and congratulate the United States for proposing new rules to regulate emissions from existing power plants that is what is driving the federated states of Micronesia to find complementary ways to address the already occurring impacts of warming and damages to sea level rise we can no longer sit idle we must take fast action now while we can and we must succeed with the Paris COP next year as well Ladies and gentlemen before I conclude I will be remiss if I do not thank New Zealand through UNVassar the staff of the MPC for your vision your leadership your kindness and your hospitality for hosting us this afternoon and then of course all those who are involved in organizing this event I thank you indeed Thank you very much Thank you very much Foreign Minister Robert we are going to now segue into a panel discussion so could I please invite our panelists to come up here while they get mic'd up please so while they get mic'd up I'll just make a few brief introductory comments the theme of this panel discussion this year is partnerships you've heard this theme you've started to hear this theme from our introductory speakers already about the importance of Pacific countries working together collectively to do things they couldn't do individually to address issues and resources and to achieve peace and security and economic prosperity many of the challenges facing the Pacific islands and other SIDS's are shared by the international community including climate change, oceans and seas, natural disasters and sustainable economic development so these are some of the themes that we're going to tackle in this panel we have a distinguished panel with different speakers each speak briefly I'll introduce them serially as they speak and then we'll have a Q&A when they're finished our first speaker is New Zealand Ambassador for Pacific Economic Development Mr Shane Jones, Ambassador Jones please you can sit if you like or you can come up, you prefer ok thank you greetings on the Moana Nuiakiwa day Pacific day like I said man I can screech without the need of this apparatus I've had nine years as a politician I've got a degree in screeching to the various Ambassadors, President of Palo greetings Ambassador Moore and your team here for supporting this day greetings I have just come into this role over the last month or so having moved on from being a parliamentarian in New Zealand so I shall confine my remarks to the key themes that emerged from the Oceans Conference and provide an opportunity for the other speakers who have probably got greater bragging rights than I have in this particular area but without a doubt the hosting of the conference has provided a platform to highlight issues of particular significance to the Pacific the focus on ocean acidification really needs to be amplified when we do all arrive at the SIDS Conference in Samoa the importance of regulating better and extracting greater value out of the fisheries of the Pacific you know we have a host of reports we have had a host of very clever advisors wander through the Pacific but I want to acknowledge James Mowbray who will soon be speaking in New Zealand, James I want you to know you are regarded as a highly competent expert on Pacific fisheries because often the challenge is taking from our rhetoric operational problems programs that can be embraced and put into practice in our various jurisdictions and I also want to before I wind up acknowledge the Micronesian whanau people that are here today it was the navigator Maul from Micronesia who in 1984 after the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Waka came to New Zealand that worked with our Māori tribes and enabled us to rejuvenate an art that had been lost to us in the time of my grandparents and Maul the master navigator of the Pacific worked with our Māori elders and now we have a host of ocean going Waka that traversed the Pacific but much of it is attributed to the efforts of that particular walking encyclopedia from your part of the Pacific he was someone that we respected and dearly loved I just want to finish up by encouraging a strong delegation from the community of the United States either NGO business people or professional government advisors to come down to Samoa because the role that you appear to be claiming to provide some leadership to the rest of the world and work with us to generate solutions in the Pacific cannot be left to a single event and it ought not to be left just to the next oceans conference in Chile I would encourage you to bring a strong delegation to SIDS and work with those of us who are dealing with these challenges in the Pacific every single week i.e. better wealth from fisheries and enhancing the sustainability of the fisheries and driving better scientific platforms to better understand how we should derive solutions in our own space to deal with ocean acidification and obviously the ills of climate change others will have more to say as I said my name is Shane Jones and after nine years in politics I find this audience very much more friendly thank you very much Mr. Jones thank you very much our next speaker is James Movic who is the new director general of the four month fisheries agency Mr. Movic do you want to speak there from there or you come there okay thank you please Mr. President excellencies honorable ministers ladies and gentlemen after the ambassadors kind endorsement I suppose I better try to sound like I'm smart but thank you very much for inviting me to talk at this occasion I'm very happy to be here in Washington to talk with you and share with you some of the story of what we are doing in Pacific Fisheries and in the process I would like to convey to you that oftentimes we paint a rather dire picture that in fact there are a lot of positives and successes that we have that we can also point to and that we should take strength and comfort from as we continue the challenge of managing and utilizing the tuna resources in particular the oceanic resources since that's the responsibility of my agency in the Pacific so what is FFA it's not the Future Farmers of America it's the Pacific Island Foreign Fisheries Agency is a small intergovernmental organization comprised of a partnership of the 17 Pacific Island countries and the territory of Tokolao including Australia and New Zealand the FFA was established in 1978 which for those of you who know the law of the sea will realize was before the final ratification of the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea and this was a very deliberate move by the leaders of the Pacific at the time to assert their national sovereignty through the mechanism of the extension of the 200 mile exclusive economic zones and it put into place the very solid legal regime of national zones and national sovereignty and jurisdiction over zones and through working in a cooperative manner in the Foreign Fisheries Agency forging these links the cooperative arrangements between them common actions, common attitudes and common positions in order to build what has become the most effective tuna management regime in the entire world it is the reason why the western central Pacific still has the most robust of all of the international tuna fisheries regimes in the world and it all stems to the fact that the islanders took control of this resource and built it based on their common understanding of their national interest and the realization that in order to effectively manage a highly migratory resource we had to combine and cooperate our mega resources to face up to the rest of the world and to have sufficient reach over this highly migratory regional resource but it's that lesson and people who don't understand the importance of national sovereignty in the approach that we've taken to fisheries management in the region and the success that is built if you don't understand you can never understand fully why we have been a success and why we maintain the kinds of positions that we do in the international tuna regime and associated arrangements around the world I've already explained why we need partnerships in tuna fisheries and this is supposed to be a session where we talk of the role of partnerships and the usefulness of partnerships particularly in this year of SIDS 3 where partnerships is the common theme but it is this fundamental partnership amongst the Pacific island countries which is the most important and the lesson from that is that we must continue to maintain that. Sure we have differences amongst ourselves but we've always found ways in which to be able to come together to try to reconcile those differences to understand where we have differences and to put those aside and to focus on those things that we can do together and that we are prepared to do together and then as we gain more success we come back to the more difficult aspects of the relationship and we continue to improve upon those and the lesson here for those in the international community who are increasingly into the region to provide assistance particularly now that Oceans is in a political common currency this is the area to be in if you want to get support etc so I anticipate we will get a lot of interest in the region in this area but the fundamental point that I want to make here is that those who come into the region help us need to understand that there are existing regional institutional arrangements that have helped the Pacific island and by which we've been able to develop as successfully as we have up to this point the Foreign Fisheries Agency obviously is the peak body with the leaders of the region coming together and we have a number of institutional arrangements and organizations within that where governments have developed over a period of 35 or 40 years that have been very effective and so for those of you who are looking to come into the region to increase the level of your assistance I encourage you first to realize that there is an existing regional institutional framework and to utilize that rather than to think that you can come into the region and reinvent the wheel because I think if there is one lesson I've learned in the week prior to this at the FAO in Rome at the Committee on Fisheries and even over the past two days is that we have actually developed a number of arrangements in the Pacific that are at the forefront of international practice and that are increasingly being recognized as such so I give you some examples of what it is that we have done and that we do that makes our fisheries regime relatively successful not a total success we can't be complacent overfishing can occur if we are not diligent and vigilant in watching out for this in the area of MCS or monitoring control and surveillance we have developed a vessel monitoring scheme using satellites to track boats that goes back to the early 80s I noticed in the conference in the last two days there was much highlighting of some of the development that is taking place more recently in Africa in the Indian Ocean we have been doing this since the early 80s and a lot of what is being done elsewhere is actually being modeled on what we have established in the Pacific we have since developed a picture where we are able to have a massive oversight of most of the operations in the region using a number of different modalities both our own vessel monitoring system utilizing the IMO automatic identification system for larger vessels that are not necessarily fishing vessels so we have got a fairly good picture of every vessel that has some kind of automatic location transponder on board crossing the region we are then able to support that using occasional operations where we do a kind partnership of what we call the quad which are the naval and coast guard forces of Australia and New Zealand the United States and France we run periodic surveillance operations through the Pacific where we are able to deploy boats and aircraft to actually go out and surveil the fishing grounds and apprehend and bring boats in and what we have seen in the 708 years that we have been doing this is a remarkable reduction in the level of IOU activity in terms of purely illegal boats fishing out there. What we have seen and what is still a threat in the Pacific is the underreporting element. There are not too many pirate boats out there in our estimation. I think the US industry representatives in the conference on Monday pointed out that it is probably at the most not more than 10% and that is even broader than just the Pacific tuna fishery but where the problem lies is in underreporting of catch the late reporting of catch because this affects the science that we use in order to determine the acceptable levels of fishing that we agree to on an annualized basis and unfortunately most of the problem here does not lie with the island countries or within the management systems that we insist on for the boats that fish within our exclusive economic zones but the bulk of the problem that we have been seeing the last couple of years are with distant water fishing boats operating primarily in the areas beyond national jurisdiction or in the high seas areas and this is the threat and we have offered a number of solutions in the western and central Pacific fisheries commission and internationally to allow for the purposes of tuna management not in order to impede the freedom of navigation but for the purposes of more effective tuna management to provide for a greater management closure of the high seas to fishing and an allocation of the rights for fishing on the high seas to the adjacent coastal states who have the principal interest and capacity to manage this resource effectively it's perhaps a novel idea but I think under the fabric of both the law of the sea and the fish stock agreement and realizing that we've got to look at tools such as this as the way forward to close off this one area of threat, of continuing threat in terms of management in the Pacific we have seen the creation of some very innovative systems of rights based management in particular with the PNA vessel day scheme or the VDS whereby we have set a total management limit for the area limits on effort within the area encompassed by the participating parties and we allocate those rights to participating parties and because tuna is a highly migratory resource if the tuna stocks fish to the east or the west we are able to sell and trade days between ourselves to always ensure that within the total allowable catch that we have set the fishing activity is able to take place through this mechanism as a result we have seen a 300% increase in the level of fishing access fees over just the last four years and with the recent announcement by the parties of the narrow agreement to increase the current vessel day rate by what is it almost 60% we will see an even more significant increase in the access fees that are being derived by these island nations but the system we are also putting into place a similar arrangement for the southern albacore fishery it's taking us about 30 years to persuade the members that share the southern albacore fishery stock that they need to get together agree on collective limits national limits and a collective limit overall and to begin to face the rest of the world in a more unified manner just as the P&A countries have done for the Per St. Fishery so again these developments that are attracting international attention and we can be very proud of the inroads that have been made by the Pacific in this regard this particularly struck me in Rome last week at the Committee on Fisheries when we were approached by a number of different delegations from Africa from the Indian Ocean and the Director General of FAO also invited me to attend the Caribbean Ministers of Fisheries meeting next year in order to explain more about what they are doing in terms of MCS so the lessons that we have learned in the Pacific the models that we have created are getting the type of international attention and support that is long overdue I think one of our problems in the Pacific region is that we tend to be too modest we focus on all the problems and difficulties we continue to have instead of celebrating the successes and I think in fisheries at least in the tuna fisheries area there is a lot for the region to be proud of and to be able to stand up on its own feet and say we deserve to be treated not as supplicants with their hand out always seeking aid but rather as people who have a resource who have managed this resource responsibly and who want to derive the value from that resource that we are entitled to as the managers of that resource the in doing this I realize I am probably taking more time and I am the kind of person who can talk about tuna for the next two days and if you are interested I am more than happy to do that but I realize I will run out of time and goodwill here if I continue much more but I did just want to address some of the myths that have developed that there is this rampant IOU fishing out there it is far more controlled in the Pacific region than in many other regions in the tuna fishery in particular and so we should, while not being complacent we should recognize that fact similarly as I have said with regard to well as I haven't said yet but the rate of return we have often complained about the fact that we aren't making an adequate rate of return on the resource but for a rate of return on a basic commodity product if you are just taking the raw fish that is extracted from our waters and there is about $3.4 billion worth of tuna from the FFA member EEZ which is more than half of the catch of the western central pacific ocean we gain about $240 million in access fee revenues at the present time and this constitutes about 60% of government revenues in one country and is more than 10% of the national budget for another four so that's the importance of the revenues from tuna fishing access that is derived at the present time and on an industry-wide basis this is around about 7% at the present time that we are moving towards we should be going up to about 10 or 12% as many people tell me for a commodity product is a fairly decent rate of return but in our view that is not sufficient we believe that we have a right to enjoy the value of the fish all the way up to the end point of sale all the way through the value chain and we are now putting into place mechanisms that will allow us to leverage access to this resource in return for a greater return of the total value of the tuna product I'd just like to finish by acknowledging some of the key partnerships besides the partnership that has existed amongst the Pacific Island countries themselves which is of course the key to everything that we are doing and the success we have not only in fisheries but all sectors of the region I want to thank New Zealand and Australia for the funding support way beyond what they're in obliged to provide as their contribution but the additional support that they've continued to give us through the years not only in terms of financial support but also in terms of the naval operations and the various fisheries operations that we run the United States of America with whom we've had a very long and mutually productive relationship through the form of the U.S. Tuna Treaty for the last 25 years or more and we have the assistance of the partnership of the United States in the area of the surveillance operations as well including having one of the aircraft carrier task forces that was coming through the region actually send off some of their aircraft I don't know what the latest form of naval jet is an F-15 or something even more sinister than that so can you imagine being on a small fishing boat out at sea and having these jets just fly over your head and buzz you because that's actually what the pilots did they didn't have onboard cameras that they could use so they used handheld cameras and buzzed these fishing boats taking photos so that must have been quite a scene but it probably instilled in the fisherman's mind don't mess around with these Pacific Islanders they've got a lot of clout so I also just the final one is to make this issue of South-South cooperation as I said in Rome last week what I was really gratified by was the recognition of what we are doing and the desire on the part of other people in Africa, the Indian Ocean and through the Director General of FAO some possibility also of the Caribbean that we could assist asking for our help seeking to learn from the models and the experience in the Pacific and I think this is the best testament to the success and the hard work that Pacific Islanders have built in over the last 35 years in the management of this resource so thank you very much Mr. Movic, our next speaker is Mr. Charles Feinstein who is the sector manager for water and energy at the World Bank's East Asia and Pacific Sustainable Development Department please Mr. Feinstein. I think the mic's on I'll take my punishment sitting down it's really a pleasure to be here and I mean that sincerely I've spent about 12 years of my career working on and with the Pacific primarily on sustainable energy issues I worked in Micronesia, Samoa Hawaii and most recently out of Sydney working on the Pacific region I'm going to try and give you a brief overview or set the context a couple of snapshots of the situation of energy in the Pacific first access to modern energy commonly electricity quite high Pacific generally does well particularly in Polynesia 95 to 98% of the population in places like Samoa and Tonga have access to electricity but there are big pockets principally in Melanesia Papua New Guinea electrification rates 13% and the Solomon's 20% Bonoatu 27% electricity and modern energy is a big enabler of growth so that is a huge challenge and most of the electricity or modern energy that exists is based on imported fossil fuels many islands import 98% of their energy second the share of renewable energy and the resources are abundant in the Pacific is really quite low the only real renewable source of energy is basically cooking fuel other resources such as hydro power at any scale when solar geothermal are scarcely exploited today thirdly, energy intensity is high what do I mean by that the amount of principally petroleum that is consumed to produce a unit of economic output and there is a false belief that hey we don't use much energy but in reality the scope to improve efficiency is really quite vast now I think the question on the table for the Pacific is is energy a driver or an impediment to sustainable development well let me just outline some of the challenges first off the region faces some of the highest energy costs in the world it is common to see the cost of generation of electricity between 30 to 60 cents a kilowatt hour and the irony is as I tell my team, my guys if you can't make it here in promoting renewable energy you can't make it anywhere in the world because I don't know the single renewable energy technology that costs that much so it's not a pure technology or economics problem ironically there is an irony here that many Pacific islands nations have poverty rates in excess of 20% and these people pay among the most for energy services it's like the irony of shopping for groceries here in Washington DC where the highest price is for groceries in the poorest areas it's not in Bethesda and in Acosta and there is a parallel to the Pacific a second major issue for the Pacific is what I call energy vulnerability these are some of the most vulnerable countries in the world to oil price shock and we saw that in, for example, 2008 when oil prices went up by a factor of 8 and brought many specific economies to their knees in fact, even today the cost of fuel imports is somewhere in the range of 12 to 37% of the import bills total import bills of Pacific nations and compounding that issue is that island states face the threat of physical cutoff supply interruptions, for example due to accidents or storms and climate change is going to exacerbate that threat because the supply chains are very long and very costly third challenge is what I would categorize as fiscal imbalances so looking at a macroeconomic level Pacific islands are some of the most indebted and aid dependent countries in the world and in fact, if you take the combined effect that service and the cost of principally oil imports that's 60 to 70% of their GDP and again a lot of that has been driven by the recent rise of oil prices and I don't think they're going, they're not going to reverse course let me quickly move on to the partnership angle to answer my question I do think today energy is more of an impediment to sustainable development but it's still a community on the table and the partnership that's fundamentally required I think is between governments and the development partner, the donor community and their weaknesses on both sides governments tend to take an ad hoc approach to energy planning and investment there are very poorly developed avenues for private sector participation which can be not only a source of technology but of capital and risk taking on the donor side donors tend to take also a somewhat ad hoc and poorly coordinated approach among each other and I can tell you the story of when we went out of town about five years ago at the World Bank to ask at high levels of government what could we do to assist in the energy sector and it was a horror story the senior official said we deal with 13 energy donors assistant agencies currently and each has their own view of the situation and their own, frankly, pet projects and we got together with the prime minister and basically issued a declaration or the government did to the donor community this will not stand business as usual will no longer be business as usual and we adopted approach which has now been enshrined by the SPC as the lead energy assistance or energy coordination agency in the Pacific and that is around the concept of one team, many players and one game plan so TOMA has now adopted they've gone through a very rigorous least cost planning process designed to reduce dependence on energy imports promote energy efficiency and renewable energy and these 13 donors we all now sit around one table and while we don't all finance every part of the plan we are financing various pieces in a coordinated way and we've had parts at least so far after five years that Tongans have stuck with it and we've had some small victories a lot of this work has been supported by Australia and New Zealand and recently about a year ago I believe under New Zealand assistance the Tongans commissioned their first major centralized solar photovoltaic plant and that's reducing oil imports in the electricity sector so that's a start and it just shows you what can be done through an enhanced partnership approach thank you next panelist is Ambassador Guyant Acharya who is the undersecretary general and high representative for the least developed countries landlocked developing countries and small island developing states that's quite a title Ambassador Acharya was the former prior to this job as a government representative in the fall of the United Nations Ambassador Acharya you can either stay seated or come up here, your choice thank you I think I'll do it from here President Apalaya our excellencies distinguished ladies and gentlemen thank you for the invitation to this event I think the timing of this specific night is propitious the last two days the city was abuzz with the leaders from all walks of life talking about the health of the oceans planet and people in a holistic manner the United States first the UN General Assembly has designated 2014 as the international year of SIDS the first time the UN has designated such an honor for a group of countries second the third international conference in SIDS will be convened in Pia Samoa this September 1 4 and the PIA summit is taking place we just heard in Palau which would contribute to include specific perspectives just before that I think the preparations for the conference have been made by the member states under the advocacy mandate for SIDS my office is tasked with jointly organizing with the government of independent states of Samoa a private sector partnerships forum we are all aware that the future we want outcome of the U20 process acknowledge the need for a broader lines of all the stakeholders for sustainable development I think that certainly includes the private sectors of the society the communities if sustainable development is to be a reality it is to be a reality the private sector forum will be looking at bringing together some of the private sector alliances women and youth entrepreneurs for partnership in Samoa it has six sectoral themes oceans and marine resources sustainable agriculture, connectivity such as ICT and transportation renewable energy, sustainable tourism and disaster risk management there will be a seventh session that will focus on cross cutting issues including inclusive finance, women and business and youth entrepreneurship the objective of the private sector forum is to showcase best practices, scale up private sector initiatives already underway announce new private sector partnerships in SIDS SIDS SIDS and development partners both traditional and emerging and public private partnerships these forum aims to have a number of concrete partnerships announced under each of the sectoral themes the forum will add value to the intergovernmental process that will follow from 1 to 4 September there will be also a high level dialogue segment on 31st August allowing for discussions between political leaders and business leaders we know that the business environment is critical and it is dependent on national policies, regulatory framework and institutional arrangements the segment will be chaired by the Prime Minister of Samoa as to the conference proper durable partnership is an apt one SIDS have emphasized that in order for them to achieve their sustainable development aspirations they will continue to rely on genuine and durable partnerships collaborative efforts at all levels with a long term and holistic approach is key to success in SIDS at New Zealand's one strong support of Samoa in hosting the conference is commendable and we hope that the conference comes with an outcome that is really implementable with a strong focus and action plans I think the conference also is an opportunity for SIDS to contribute towards the broader dialogue on the post 2015 development agenda which is being discussed at the UN this discussions on the STGs is immensely relevant to SIDS as they see and face sustainability challenge on a daily basis there is a need to ensure SIDS angle to these targets and goals of the STGs and this is something that the SIDS conference is an ongoing discussion one of the important things to remind ourselves that the SIDS are on the front line of many of the global challenges when you look at and deal with the SIDS challenges we are not only looking at it from the equity perspective which we should be but much more than that we will be also effectively contributing to the global sustainability development agenda therefore we have to see it from a broader perspective but SIDS themselves as well as the global community as a whole in today's globalized world one thing is that there is nothing like a separate local issue and the global issue I think they are all intertwined all have to play a role I'm glad the number of initiatives are underway in SIDS in marine protected areas fishing and energy we heard that a strong multi-stakeholder national leadership and global partnership is the only way forward I had a pleasure to represent the Secretary General in last Pacific Island leaders forum in Majuro where I surf first time that SIDS and smaller islands like Marsils are on the front lines of facing the leaders Majuro declaration climate leadership which was presented to the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last September is highly commendable SIDS are the moral voice on the urgency to address the climate change as well as the health of the oceans as is custodian and we fully agree the small islands are indeed large ocean states which is coming up very strongly in the UN debate as well this September 23rd the Secretary General will be hosting the climate summit under the theme catalyzing action in New York we look forward to receiving many of SIDS leaders in the summit and continue to look forward towards more initiatives that leaders could announce at that summit I think this should be very important to generate a stronger global political will that is required to have an ambitious agreement in Paris SIDS continue to be a special case as recognized in 92 Rio onset my office will continue to advocate for this special case as we move towards Samoa but will continue our mandate from Samoa thank you our next speaker is Ms. Sylvia Reid Curran who is the Special Advisor on Indigenous Engagement in the Race, Ethnicity and Social Inclusion Unit of policy planning in the State Department you also have a pretty hefty title Ms. Curran, thank you I'll also speak of your excellencies, distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen first of all I'd like to thank the Washington DC Pacific Committee for the invitation I have to admit that the invitation came as a bit of a surprise unlike the other members of the panel I am not an expert on Pacific Island issues I'm familiar with the Pacific I've lived previously in Hawaii I have family in Hawaii I've traveled throughout the Pacific my last overseas assignment I was the U.S. Consul General in Vladivostok, Russia which was in the North Pacific and one of our most pleasurable responsibilities in Vladivostok was tourism to Guam we really enjoyed that part of our job the theme of today's panel is partnerships the Pacific plan goals state that working collectively to do more than one could do separately manage shared resources to achieve shared goals of peace harmony security and economic prosperity I think those goals which are achieved through collaboration are important for all regions of the world and as our world becomes more interconnected as it should the only way to really meet the challenges that have an impact on us all is through partnerships and collaboration I currently work on hemisphere affairs and like its ties with its partners throughout the world the United States of America values its ties to Latin America and the Caribbean and those ties are important to the collective future of the hemisphere partnerships in the western hemisphere are vital to our shared economic competitiveness and prosperity to our ability to solve the transnational challenges that no country can solve on its own and vital to the global consolidation of democracy and human rights I'd like to share with you today several of the partnership programs that we have in the western hemisphere the first one I want to talk about is 100,000 strong in the Americas we're very proud of President Obama's 100,000 strong in the Americas initiative which seeks to build a more competitive interconnected region by supporting 100,000 student exchanges annually between the US and our partners in the hemisphere by 2020 and that would be 100,000 US students studying in Latin America and 100,000 students from those countries studying in the United States it also aims to dramatically increase the number and diversity of student exchanges across the hemisphere investing in education and opportunities for our young people is investing in our hemisphere's future the initiative will offer our young people the chance to build the skills and networks they need to compete in this globalized world the Department of State is working to implement 100,000 strong in the Americas through partnerships with foreign governments with universities and colleges and with the private sector Education USA a network of more than 100 US government supported advising centers throughout the western hemisphere as a centerpiece of our partnership and outreach efforts we are working with Latin American and Caribbean governments universities and the private sector to provide international study opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds or historically underserved populations pathways to prosperity in the Americas pathways countries include Belize Canada, Chile, Colombia the Dominican Republic El Salvador, Guatemala Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua Panama, Peru, Uruguay and the United States Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago have observer status the Inter-American Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean are strategic pathways partners pathways countries recognize that while trades burs economic growth countries the gains from trade have not been equitably shared and the promise of economic and social opportunity remains elusive for too many people in this hemisphere pathways seeks to close this gap by empowering small farmers, small businesses craftspeople workers, women, indigenous communities afro descendants youth and vulnerable groups to participate effectively in the global economy pathways is designed to help countries learn from one another's experience through the exchange of best practices for spreading the benefits of economic growth broadly to all of our citizens pathways partner countries are committed to deepening cooperation by expanding opportunities in particular for small businesses, farmers and rural communities deepening the trade architecture to facilitate regional trade and integration expanding cooperation on development and competitiveness enhancing cooperation on labor and environment expanding educational opportunities promoting public-private partnerships and ensuring the effective enforcement of fundamental labor rights and decent working conditions and the effective enforcement of environmental laws we're excited about the pathways innovation challenge which seeks to unlock the potential of small and medium enterprises in the hemisphere and we are proud to support the inter-american social protection network which promotes best practices on social protection and access to basic services for vulnerable groups across the region the state department's targeted assistance efforts and pathways to prosperity in the Americas 98.5 million in credit for small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico El Salvador and Nicaragua and in Mexico alone we trained 150 women entrepreneurs and facilitated 6.5 million in new sales for them we Americas women's entrepreneurship in the Americas investing in women-owned enterprises is one of the best ways to achieve economic financial and social impact research shows that women-owned SMEs are significant accelerators of economic growth as women tend to spend more of their earned income than men on the health and education of their families as a result women-owned SMEs yield significant social impact and bolster future gains in productivity first launched in 2012 we worked with our founding partners which came from private business non-governmental organizations academia and multilateral banking to provide women entrepreneurs with access to networks access to finance and access to markets our founding partners included the Sherry Blair foundation for women non-mobile foundation Goldman Sachs 10,000 women Inter-American Development Bank Thunderbird School of Global Management Vital Voices Wal-Mart Foundation and We Connect International We Americas makes grants to reduce the barriers women entrepreneurs face for example the IDB and the Multilateral Investment Fund partner to launch Women Entrepreneurship Banking initiative to help financial institutions deploy innovative lending models that support women-owned SMEs Multilateral Investment Fund is providing up to 5 million in technical assistance grants to transfer knowledge of effective lending models for women-owned SMEs and to train loan officers and credit managers in these products and services the IDB through its financial market strategy beyond banking program is offering up to 50 million in loans, risk taking facilities and partial credit guarantees moreover the ExxonMobile Foundation and the U.S. Department of State have provided grants to We Connect International to support their work registering and certifying women-owned businesses in Mexico through its work with the sub-committee on access to markets on the Secretary's International Council of Women Business Leaders We Connect has also worked to provide women-owned businesses in Brazil, Chile Mexico and Peru with market access opportunities America's partnership for social inclusion and equality under the America's partnership for social inclusion and equality we're also funding projects to build the capacity of vulnerable groups in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador Paraguay and Peru Clean Energy Financing Forum for Central America In 2013 three entrepreneurs secured 14 million in private financing to launch their Clean Energy projects through the Clean Energy Financing Forum for Central America an event sponsored by the State Department the keys to all these programs the key to all these programs is partnership the ability to build these links not just between governments but also with private business with academia with international organizations in order to promote the prosperity and better standards for all Thank you Thank you very much We'll now have a few minutes for questions so please, like the drill was before raise your hand to identify yourself by name and affiliation if possible Any questions out there? We had a very diverse set of interventions by our various panelists and so there's a lot of food for thought. I'm sure some of you have questions Sorry Thank you Salopanapasa Research Scientist at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and my question is directed to Dr. Curran and thank you for this wonderful opportunity for the Americas and certainly thanks to the president and the State Department for its leadership in taking the lead cultivating and building partnerships that would help empower the communities in Latin America so that they too can become competitive in a global economy so my question is is this a program and option that our Pacific leaders can consider so that the program can be expanded to include the communities and populations in the Pacific Island nations whereby they too can reap the benefits through the investment of building local capacities and participate in similar pathway programs so that they too someday will become competitive, will have the skills to be able to advocate for the ocean and the land and the needs of the local people so, you know, I'm a research scientist I am familiar of and I would like to use an example of the National Institutes on Health whereby there programs and investments in research in developing countries I have yet to see special program funding programs directed to Pacific Island countries so my question is really you know, if there is a commitment or a commitment can be made for consideration by the leaders of the Pacific is this an option whereby the Pacific Island nations too can participate and benefit in such a program because certainly the need is there let's let her answer the question please, thank you first of all, thank you very much for your question as I mentioned I work on Western Hemisphere Affairs and I think that that question should be directed to our colleagues who work in the East Asian and Pacific Bureau because they're the ones who work on this issue so I cannot speak for them I know that this is these programs have been very beneficial in the Western Hemisphere and many of them are new as I've stated when some are just a couple of years old but and we have very strong goals because of the importance of partnerships and working with them I know that we also value our partnerships with our colleagues and friends in the Pacific but I can't speak for another Bureau thank you, there's a question here I have a lot to help, I can't really stand up I'm Henry Gass, I'm a reporter at ClimateWire and I had a question about partnerships among Pacific Islands and how that translates on the international relations scene I was wondering, we've talked a bit about the U.S. his recent commitment to cutting CO2 emissions and I was wondering if your partnerships if you're looking to engage with other big polluting countries like China, India for example on working on that as well and how your partnerships are going to manifest themselves on the international stage as well because it's a famous tradition in New Zealand do not stand between an audience, drink and poo New Zealand has a successful joint project with the Chinese dealing with freshwater reticulation and freshwater sanitation in the Cook Islands we're conscious that 4.2, 3 million people in the southern portion of the Pacific we do need to partner not only with established parties but in terms of the Chinese interest in the Pacific that's a small example where we're endeavoring in the Pacific to find projects where we can work together Has it had much coverage? Yeah, perhaps a little part of the world it would appear that it hasn't enjoyed any coverage in the media that you represented this part of the world that's a small but workable proposition that I think that the Cook Island government and families are deriving something at the front Any of the other panelists want to answer? Give someone else another opportunity to ask back there David Shepard just picking up James's comment that we're often too modest I think that is true, I think there's many innovative and exciting initiatives in the Pacific, Micronesian Challenge initiatives such as the locally managed marine areas renewable energy Tokalau 100% solar energy so I think we should use the SIDS conference to highlight these and all of these in fact are based on partnerships in the region between countries, donors civil society I think also SIDS conference we need to look at how we can strengthen the partnerships between Caribbean Pacific Indian Ocean we have some examples the AOSIS work for the climate negotiations is a good one, the SIDS stock the cross regional renewable energy initiative is another we need to look and use SIDS conference in a way that we strengthen cross regional collaboration particularly with a view to maximum influence on the Millennium Development goal relating to oceans and also the Paris conference next year sorry, not a question but a comment an observation backing up the excellent presentations I think what we're going to do is because we're expecting a couple of prominent officials to arrive momentarily what we're going to do is adjourn this panel and then Patricia Tamborello who's the chief of the Pacific Islands unit of the Asia Pacific Department at the IMF International Monetary Fund will make a few concluding comments thank you chair I'm delighted to be here this afternoon I want to thank the New Zealand Embassy and the organizer for this remarkable event this is my fourth year here and I think that you're raising the bar every year I would like to summarize some of the takeaways from the panelist it was a very rich discussion very briefly I would say one word about the IMF and the partnership with our country authorities and development partners and finally some the way forward what we think at least in our work program should be the focus in terms of strategic themes so in terms of the main takeaways I would say that one way to characterize it is that the challenges of the Pacific Islands have changed over time or better to say the exception of these challenges have changed in the past it was just very well known within the region that climate change was an issue but every time even myself I was talking a few years ago with other authorities in other regional development partners they were thinking climate change was going to happen one day in 15 years and then the world will stop but this thank god have changed and now it's a well known fact but as was saying also during the panel it's not about the challenges but the region should also leverage the opportunities some of them were raised how to manage better the marine resources is one of them and we should not reinvent the wheels a lot of progress have already done as an economist I also want to stress that the Pacific region is located in close to the most vibrant region in the world and therefore there are opportunities also to leverage the location the other aspect that was stressed was the importance of partnership and collaboration and I see this has two pillars one is to find regional solutions and way to common problems that can beneficial parties but the other one was also stress and how to find synergies and better collaborate it was mentioned early on that every country face several agencies talking about the same issue and providing different policy response and therefore better coordination there perhaps the most important takeaway is that despite all the challenges that the Pacific Island face policies matter so it's not all about geography it's not all about natural disasters but the role of the leaders in the region is very important to tackle these challenges in terms of the regional solution to problems in addition to what was said in terms of strengthening the capacity of bargaining power and extracting more rate of return on the marine resources I also would like to stress the importance of the seasonal employment scheme that was introduced by New Zealand in 2006 and also later on followed by Australia and the fact in terms of policies one other important issue is that the Pacific Island through the face shocks but they're also being resilient and learn how to be resilient through the different natural disaster and climate change issues they actually whether the financial crisis better than other islands in different regions like the Caribbean and one of the reasons is that also thanks to the strong partnership with the development partners that accumulated less that than other islands I'm thinking for example about the Caribbean islands. One word about the IMF is that the IMF is committed to tailor its assistance whether it's capacity building or it's policy advice to meet the unique challenges of the Pacific Islands we will be in Samoa later this year represented by the Deputy Manager and Director of the IMF Mr Min Ju and we hope to bring together the three regions as you were saying in an event to compare notes on how to build the macro fiscal resilience in the island states. In terms of partnership of course the IMF should leverage its comparative advantage and it's in our comparative advantages to look at macro fiscal stability make sure that the macroeconomic policy are sort of broadly adequate to leave potential growth in the region but we're also looking at competitiveness and how to make sure that these economies can continue to become to be competitive in this globalized world. One last issue which I think it's very important was touch based by Sylvia current is how to make growth more inclusive this is a big issue in the Pacific Islands but not only in the Pacific Islands but in other countries there are several ways to do it if countries are natural resources of course is about putting in place the right tax system but one way and we've done also some work on that is to make to increase women participation rate and we've seen that also in other countries this is proved to be one of the key ingredient for raising growth and one way to say is that as I said some of these challenges the Pacific Island space should of course be handled by country authorities but there are big externalities in climate change and natural disasters so the international community of course should continue to discuss these issues because it's not enough to build fiscal space these are huge costs cannot be internalized just by country authorities and therefore we should all be together Thank you We are expecting another speaker however has been delayed and so we've been asked to start to make our way outside to the patio here for cultural performance and we'll get the speech from this other visitor soon after. Thank you