PORT VILA (Pacnews) — Only six out of 14 Forum Island Countries have given a “stocktake” of how they have implemented the eight principles of accountability to the Forum secretariat.
This was revealed by Secretary-General Noel Levi when he briefed regional journalists covering the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting in Port Vila.
“From the responses we received from member countries, we felt that there may be some difficulties or problems for our members or the process has been pushed too quickly by other FICs or by the Secretariat,” he said.
“This is what we have said in our brief to the ministers,” Levi said.
He said eight members that have not submitted their reports have valid reasons for not doing so.
“It has to do with capacity problems. From my personal observation, I think there are also so many demands on our members to deal with a lot of international issues like the threats of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,” he said.
Levi allayed concerns that the eight members refused to comply. He did not reveal which countries have not given an account of their stocktake.
“It all boils down to the capacity of our members to deal with all these issues. It’s not that our members are not interested in implementing the principles of accountability, it’s just resource constraints,” Levi said.
On the question of Solomon Islands seeking a suspension or temporary waiver from the Melanesian Spearhead Group, Levi said the process should be treated with caution.
“We have assisted through informal advice to the Solomon Islands government and we have been observing the developments there,” he said.
“We would want the Solomon Islands government to think this decision through properly,” Levi said.
Pacnews learned that there is move in Solomon Islands not to go ahead with the suspension from the Melanesian Trade Agreement.
A proposed three-year suspension from the Trade Agreement would help Solomon Islands develop its local industries instead of importing the same goods and services from MSG countries. Trade under the MSG agreement is heavily weighted in favor of Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Vanuatu and New Caledonia are the other two members of the MSG. But recent responses from MSG countries seem to sympathize with the attempts by the Solomon Islands government to revamp and revive the country’s ailing economy.
Last week Prime Minister Allan Kemakeza announced that the country was faced with a massive debt amounting to $284 million.
The Trade Ministers Meeting in Nadi next month will discuss Solomon Islands request.
