During the last administration, assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was made available to Palau to develop a medium term action plan to implement the National Development Master Plan “2020”, which was adopted by the Olbiil era Kelulau in 1996. Two forums were held last year to inform the public of progress with preparing the MTDS and to obtain input from the community and the leadership. The MTDS was nearing its completion as the last administration ended its term of office.
President Toribiong, an advocate for action, sees the MTDS as a valuable existing resource to build on rather than spending time and resources to reinvent the wheel. However, the President remarks, “ I believe it is the obligation of my administration to give the public and the Republic’s new leadership an opportunity to reaffirm their support for the MTDS before taking any action for consideration on the implementation process”, thus the idea of a public forum was conceived.PALAU: “Actions for Our Future” is the theme of the upcoming Presidential forum to be held on June 04, 2009 at the Ngarachamayong Cultural Center in Koror. Work is underway to make the conference more exciting and informative by inviting stakeholders to showcase existing and potential industries which are important to the economic growth of Palau and relevant to supporting the MTDS. As such, stakeholders from a wide variety of local ventures such as farmers, fishermen, producers of Made in Palau items and other related enterprises will display their produce and crafts as well as sell to the public on this day.The public will be informed more on this important event in future releases such as this. For questions or further information the following are contact persons: Alfonsa Koshiba, National Coordinator and Mary Ann Delemel, National Adviser, FEIM/MTDS Project, 488-2566; 775- 1799 and Risong Tarkong, Special Assistant, Office of the President, 767- 8681.
