PRESS STATEMENT
82/06
31st October 2006

Released by the Economic Governance Work Programme

Economic Ministers have been very receptive to the consideration of economic development from an environmental perspective given the important contribution of natural resource sectors to economic growth, and in recognition that the environment is a fundamental part of the region's identity.

This statement was delivered at the 2006 Environment Ministers Meeting held in Noumea by Mr Vito Lui, Deputy Director for SPREP, on behalf of the Chair of the 2006 Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM), Hon. Gordon Darcy Lilo Minister for National Planning and Aid Co-ordination of the Solomon Islands, who was unable to attend.

The invitation to the Chair of FEMM to address the Environment Ministers Meeting continued an arrangement of reciprocal invitations which commenced during the regional preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.

The FEMM Chair's statement noted that the coverage of issues in recent Inter-ministerial exchanges have been useful and have served to underline the importance of continued collaboration - from climate change and sea level rise to practical issues around the mainstreaming of principles of sustainable development into national economic policy mechanisms.

In addition, FEMM has long recognised the potential of natural resource sectors to sustain economic growth in our region. However, raising the productivity of these sectors, whilst critical, must be sustainable. This provides an important consideration for the Environment Ministers in terms of overseeing the management of our resources from an environmental perspective.

The statement emphasised, however, that further collaborative measures needed to be considered in the context of the ability of the FEMM to effectively manage the range of development issues that they had often been called upon to consider at their annual meetings. In this regard, the approach taken by FEMM has been to clearly distinguish between those issues that could be effectively dealt with and those that would be better addressed by other Ministerial Meetings such as the Environment Ministers Meeting. In this regard, the statement encouraged the Environment Ministers to advance their important agenda whilst keeping in mind the broader economic implications.

The statement concluded by noting that Economic Ministers have learnt, through the FEMM process of taking stock, that it is one thing to make commitments regionally; it is quite another to ensure appropriate action is taken at the national level to implement these commitments. The outcomes of three FEMM Biennial Stocktakes have borne this out " that implementation at the national level continues to lag in key areas of good governance, macroeconomic reform, financial sector reform and public enterprise reform.

It this context, FEMM reiterated the emphasis on integration and implementation at the national level. The theme of the Environment Ministers Meeting, "Progressing the Biodiversity Agenda in the Pacific: Integrating and Implementing the Island Biodiversity Programme of Work and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans", was seen in this regard as mutual reinforcement of the approach taken by FEMM.

(Ends)