Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has welcomed to the Pacific Islands Forum its new Secretary General, Mr Baron Waqa.
Prime Minister Marape bid the welcome on behalf of the Government of Papua New Guinea and pledged the country’s support behind Mr Waqa to manage the PIF Secretariat and make sure the Forum continues its work to address issues affecting member countries in the region.
He said PNG is a committed member of the PIF, and as a ‘big brother’ in the region, continues to support the views and aspirations of Forum members.
The Prime Minister was speaking in a meeting with Mr Waqa on the margins of the 10th Pacific Alliance of Leaders Meeting (PALM10).
Prime Minister Marape informed Mr Waqa that PNG stood ready to support him in his leadership as the new Secretary General of the Forum Secretariat.
“We are here to support you in your role and the Forum Secretariat. We do understand the contest that has been going on within the Micronesian region on the position of the forum secretary general.
“But now that you are the new Secretary General, we want to ensure and let the PIF members know that PNG has a consistent policy on our collective views and aspirations to push for a resilient Blue Pacific at other fora in our region,’ said Prime Minister Marape.
Prime Minister Marape added that he was honored to have played an advocacy role for a stronger and united PIF when Micronesian countries boycotted PIF meetings because they wanted the secretary general’s position to be held by one of their leaders.
Mr Waqa thanked Prime Minister James Marape for taking a mediatory and leadership role in bringing the PIF Forum member countries together.
“Prime Minister Marape, I, as the PIF Secretary General, appreciate and want to acknowledge and put on record that the role you played was significant.
“We thank you and the Papua New Guinea government for that and the active and continuous role you play in the Forum’’, said Mr Waqa.
Prime Minister Marape informed the Secretary General that PNG is taking the lead in ensuring the region and other island countries gain maximum benefit from their resources.
He said his government has the vision to go into downstream processing of the region’s marine resources, especially tuna, and wants the smaller Pacific Island countries and PIF members to have their tuna catch sent to PNG for processing.
“PNG, as usual, stands ready to offer its support to our collective views on protecting and preserving our oceans and marine resources including our people and their lives,” he said.
“We are creating Special Economic Zones to cater for fisheries and fish processing facilities in our country so your smaller island countries fish or tuna can be processed in PNG and exported to get maximum value.
“The Pacific has accounted for majority of the tuna export in the region to markets in Europe and Asia but this is not processed rather goes as raw tuna. Now the PIF member countries should move away from dollar grants to down- stream processing and into trade-to-trade relations’’, said Prime Minister Mar- ape.
Mr Waqa is a former PIF leader and Forum chair in his capacity as President of the Republic of Nauru, and is the first Nauruan national to assume the Office of the Secretary General.
He will be working closely with members to progress the priorities of the region in line with the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, for the benefit of the Pacific peoples.
The PIF’s vision is for a resilient Pacific region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion and prosperity, that ensures all Pacific peoples can lead free, healthy and productive lives.