PORT VILA (Pacnews) — For the first time at any high level regional meeting, representatives of the private sector have been invited to share their views with regional government ministers.
This week in Port Vila, Vanuatu, representatives from Fiji, the Marshall Islands and Samoa’s private sector will address officials at the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting on the value of building a strong public/private sector partnership.
A Forum Secretariat background paper said private sector consultation is an important way to generate support for economic reforms in the region.
The issue was first raised at the 1997 FEMM, when ministers agreed to invite the private sector to identify all issues affecting business competitiveness that can be addressed by government.
This was after concerns were raised by the private sector over its level of participation in economic policy formulation in regional governments.
“We recognize the need for consultation with the private sector and their discussions would be presented to ministers when they meet later in the week,” said Emma Ferguson, the Forum’s economic adviser.
The three private sector representatives will share how they have developed consultation processes with their governments. Fiji will be represented by the president of the Employers Federation, David Aidney, Jessica Reimers from the Majuro Chamber of Commerce and Arthur Penn, an accountant from Samoa, who is also a member of the Samoa Chamber of Commerce.
Another issue on the agenda for FEMM is a major stocktake of how Forum island countries have implemented the eight principles of accountability, good governance and transparency.
“This is not a good and bad guy situation, but we are looking at how member countries have implemented the reform process. We want to find out the difficulties and find ways to overcome these problems so that these changes are implemented smoothly,” Ferguson said.
