WikiPortallus: Pacific Islands Forum.html

The Pacific Islands Forum is an inter-governmental organization which aims to enhance cooperation between the independent countries of the Pacific Ocean and represent their interests. It was founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum. In 2000, the name was changed; Pacific Islands Forum is more inclusive of the Forum's Oceania-spanning membership of both north and south Pacific island countries and Australia.

The decisions of the Forum are implemented by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), which grew out of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPEC). As well as its role in harmonising regional positions on various political and policy issues, the Forum Secretariat has technical programmes in economic development, transport and trade. The Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General is the permanent Chairman of the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP).²

New Zealand and Australia are much larger in population (with the exception of Papua New Guinea), and wealthier than the other small, poor, and in some cases outright impoverished island nations that make up the rest of the forum. They are significant aid donors and big markets for exports (for instance, through a concessional tariff deal on textiles exports from Fiji to Australia). Australia's population is around twice that of the other 15 members combined and its economy is more than five times larger. In Papua New Guinea (in Bougainville), Solomon Islands (2003-), Nauru (2004-) and Tonga (2006), New Zealand and Australian military and police forces have recently been part of a regional peacekeeping/stabilization operations. Such regional efforts are mandated by the Biketawa Declaration, which was adopted at the 31st Summit of Pacific Islands Forum Leaders, held at Kiribati in October 2000.

History

From 5 to 7 August 1971, the first meeting of South Pacific Forum was initiated by New Zealand and held in Wellington, with attendants of seven countries including the President of Nauru, the Prime Ministers of Western Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, the Premier of the Cook Islands, the Australian Minister for External Territories, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand. It was a private and informal discussion of a wide range of issues of common concern, concentrating on matters directly affecting the daily lives of the people of the islands of the South Pacific, devoting particular attention to trade, shipping, tourism, and education. Afterwards this meeting was held annually in member countries and areas in turn. In 1999, the 30th South Pacific Forum decided to transform into Pacific Islands Forum, with relatively more extensive and formal way of discussion and organization. Immediately after the forum’s annual meeting at head of government level, the Post Forum Dialogue (PFD) is conducted at ministerial level with PFD development partners around the world.

Main policies

The mission of Pacific Islands Forum is “to work in support of Forum member governments, to enhance the economic and social well-being of the people of the South Pacific by fostering cooperation between governments and between international agencies, and by representing the interests of Forum members in ways agreed by the Forum”.

Membership

Taiwan has asked to be recognised as an official dialogue partner of the Forum. That status is currently awarded to China. The two countries compete for diplomatic recognition in the Pacific.⁵

Secretaries-General

Institutions and legal framework

The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat was established initially as a ‘Trade Bureau’ in 1972 and later became the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPEC). The name South Pacific Forum Secretariat was approved by member governments in 1988 and changed to Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in 2000.

There are four divisions in the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, and each of these divisions has direct responsibility for a range of programs designed to improve the capacity of the Forum member countries and to co-ordinate action on matters of common interest:

Pacific Islands Countries Trade Agreement

The Melanesian Spearhead Group Preferential Trade Agreement is a similar cooperation attempt by a subset of the PICTA members.

Recent works

An "open skies" policy has been under work by a number of nations. The Pacific Islands Air Services Agreement or PIASA would allow member nations to have more access for their airlines to other member countries. To date there have been 10 signatories Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu while only 6 have ratified the agreement. These six are Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.

At the 19-20 August 2008 Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Niue, the leaders discussed Pacific Plan priorities including, "fisheries, energy, trade and economic integration, climate change and transport, in addition to information and communication technology, health, education, and good governance." Leaders also discussed impacts of climate change and adopted the Niue Declaration on Climate Change. Restoration of democratic governance in Fiji was discussed as were consequences should the interim government fail to meet established deadlines.⁷ Regional assistance to the Solomon Islands and Nauru was discussed, followed by discussion of radioactive contamination in the Marshall Islands from US government tests. Regional institutional framework issues and WTO Doha round developments were discussed, followed by discussion of country-initiatives and the Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility launched 19 August 2008 to provide up to AU$ 200 million over four years to help improve infrastructure in Kiribati, Sāmoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.¹ The United Nations announced that it would partner with Sāmoa to develop an Inter-Agency Climate Change Centre to help Pacific Islands nations combat the impacts of climate change in the region.⁸

Common currency

There have been calls to create a common currency in the Pacific. The Australian government contends^{citation needed} that the Australian dollar should be used by the island nations but many people worry that this would lead to a new age of colonialism. Some^who? feel that the common currency should be different from that of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Some countries in the Pacific already use the currency of one of the nations listed above. Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, East Timor and the Marshall Islands are currently using the United States Dollar. Nauru, Kiribati, and Tuvalu are using the Australian Dollar. Tokelau, Cook Islands, Niue, and the Pitcairn Islands use the New Zealand Dollar. There is also a strong European influence in the Pacific. The French territories of New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, and French Polynesia have been using the CFP Franc.

Future prospects

There has been a call from within both the Australian and New Zealand business communities to extend the CER (Closer Economic Relations) to other Pacific Island nations, moving towards a single market and allowing the free movement of people and goods. See Pacific Union.

Comparison with other regional blocs

PARTA, used in the first column below, is an acronym for PAcific Regional Trade Agreement⁹

Pacific Islands Forum.html

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