NO.047

PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM ECONOMIC MINISTERS’ MEETING (FEMM)

The Treasurer will attend the 8th annual Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers’

Meeting, to be held in Rotorua, New Zealand, on 8-10 June 2004.

FEMM will be held against a backdrop of the increasingly serious economic

and development challenges facing many Forum Island Countries (FICs). The meeting

will emphasise the imperative of FICs moving quickly to implement comprehensive

reform. It will assist FICs in addressing the difficult challenges of implementing

the reforms necessary to achieve sustainable growth, stronger institutions and

more robust economic governance.

As demonstrated by actions in Solomon Islands and elsewhere in the Pacific,

and by the significant allocation of resources in the 2004-05 Budget to improved

governance in the region, Australia is adopting a robust approach to the regional

reform task. The implementation of the Forum Economic Action Plan, first agreed

at the inaugural FEMM in 1997, provides a clear path for FICs to address their

significant development challenges.

Reform implementation issues will be highlighted at the meeting by consideration

of the second biennial stocktake of the region’s progress in implementing

economic and governance reform. Reform achievements over the past two years

will be assessed against the Action Plan and FEMM’s Eight Principles of

Accountability.

The FEMM meeting will have a strong focus on addressing the practical difficulties

of implementing economic governance and institutional reform. It will discuss

key issues in the management of public sector economic enterprises, the importance

of economically sustainable solutions to problems in the aviation and shipping

sectors in the region, and how economic change, growth and development are influenced

and facilitated by institutional reform.

Economic Ministers will have the opportunity to build on the reform agenda

endorsed by the Prime Minister and other Pacific Islands Forum Leaders at their

meeting in Auckland in April, where they identified the key goals of the Forum

as economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security. The

nature of these goals demonstrates the key role of FEMM in supporting the regional

reform agenda.

CANBERRA

7 June 2004

Contact: David Alexander

02 6277 7340