STRENGTHENING ECONOMIC LINKAGES RELEVANT: PM LILO
18th FEMM Ministers Group photo. Photo credit: PIF.
Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo has told regional Finance and Economic Ministers, “strengthening economic linkages is relevant and pressing”.
The 2014 Forum Economic Ministers Meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum officially opened in Honiara this morning, and this is its eighteenth meet.
Forum Economic and Finance Ministers are meeting this year under the theme “Strengthening Economic Linkages”.
In his official opening speech, Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo said, strengthening economic linkages is relevant and pressing.
“It is about Pacific Countries working together on areas requiring collective actions to do more than they could separately or if we are divided. This can create opportunities in our societies for innovation and enterprise but also collaborations amongst our countries, and to fully capture the price of economic linkages we have to work hard to link the region to economic prosperity and in doing so we can grow the strength of our vision, culture and the availability of our natural resources.”
Prime Minister Lilo also said openness and regional cooperation are the way forward for Forum member countries.
“Openness and Regional Cooperation are the way forward and we should not try to lock the world out. We can and should value our domestic industries and other activities, but we need to balance this against the benefits that are available from ideas and resources from the rest of the world and I believe the Pacific Plan provide that balancing force.”
The 2014 Forum Economic Ministers Meeting ends tomorrow.