This immediately strengthens the significance of PATVET. It also fuels the fire for the Education Ministers to move towards some regional rationalisation of awards, recognition of credit and quality assurance.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Information Resource Centre
Sent: Tuesday, 9 July 2002 8:45
To: tvet-pacific@hub.col.org
Subject: [TVET Pacific] FW: Pacific Must Work Together, Economic
Ministers Stress: in the face of the globalization that is currently
sweeping the world, the region's economic ministers said yesterday
> PACIFIC MUST WORK TOGETHER, ECONOMIC MINISTERS STRESS
>
> By Ruth Waram
> Papua New Guinea Post-Courier
>
> PORT VILA, Vanuatu (July 5, 2002 - PINA Nius Online)---Pacific Islands
> countries must work together in the face of the globalization that is currently sweeping the world, the region's economic ministers said yesterday.
>
> Their joint statement at the end of the sixth Forum Economic Ministers
> Meeting (FEMM) recognized the strong inter-relationship
> between global and regional economic trends.
>
> The seventh FEMM meeting will be held in the Marshall Islands next year,
> Vanuatu's Finance Minister and the chairperson of the Port
> Vila FEMM, Sela Molisa, told reporters.
>
> He said the meeting had re-affirmed the importance of cooperation within the
> region to meet the challenges, and make better use of the
> opportunities of globalization.
>
> One of the new initiatives of the Port Vila meeting was the private
> sector/public sector partnership workshop.
>
> In this, members of the private sector meet with the government
> representatives and discussed how both can work together to improve
> regional economic development.
>
> Forum Secretary General Noel Levi said this would now be a regular feature of
> FEMM meetings, with the private sector/public sector
> workshop taking place prior to the ministers' meeting.
>
> One of the other new initiatives of the Vanuatu meeting was the result of the
> "stocktake" of how each member country was
> implementing the FEMM decisions from 1997 to 2001.
>
> On Wednesday, Mr. Levi had expressed concern during the opening of the
> meeting about how only six of the 14 members had
> responded to a 12-page questionnaire the Forum Secretariat sent to members.
>
> This was so they could compile a report for the Vanuatu forum.
>
> The FEMM meeting in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, last year had asked the Forum
> Secretariat to conduct the "stocktake" and report to
> the Port Vila meeting.
>
> Mr. Molisa said at the end of the meeting that the "stocktake" would now be
> held bi-annually.
>
> This was to give the members sufficient time to provide a detailed report on
> how they were implementing these decisions.
>
> Under the Economic Action Plan that was released at the end of the meeting,
> the ministers agreed that some of the broader issues that
> were raised by FEMM require focusing attention on:
>
> § good governance,
>
> § use of broad based consultation,
>
> § social economic assessments, and
>
> § improving the business environment.
>
> The ministers also agreed that each member country would examine further
> individual questions for national implementation. These
> include identifying a lead agency for coordinating internal consultation
> processes.
>
> The ministers said in the joint statement that good progress had been made by
> member countries in many areas, despite constraints in
> financial and human capacity.
>
> They also said that the ministers recognized that economic reform was most
> successful when conducted in partnership with the private
> sector.
>
> They encouraged wider consultation with all private sector interests when
> developing economic policies so that the implementation of
> these policies is more effective.
>
> Pacific Islands News Association (PINA)
> Website: <http://www.pinanius.org>
> SOURCE: Pacific Islands Report
>
>
>
>
>
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