HERALD WEEKLY ISSUE 579: 31 August 2011

Minister Brown to speak at special session on Pacific Leadership
Monday 5 September Finance Minister Hon Mark Brown will be a speaker at the session organized by the “Lowy Institute for International Policy” based in Sydney, on “The Pacific Islands and the World: Realising the Pacific’s Potential.” Brown’s session, Session 4, is at 3pm and is on Leadership-the importance of strong, effective and honest leadership across government, civil society and the private sector in the Pacific. Other speakers at this session are The Prime Minister of Samoa, Ms Shamima Ali, Executive Director, Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and Anne Kajir, CEO, Environmental law centre, PNG. In the lead up publicity to this event, our officials referred to the Institute as the “Laurie Institute” and the “Lowry Institute.”
In extending the invitation to Brown, the Institute advised it was hosting the second conference in its “Pacific Islands and the World” series. The inaugural conference in this series was convened in Brisbane immediately prior to the 2009 Cairns Pacific Islands Forum meeting.
The aim of the conference is to strengthen international focus on the Pacific Islands region and connect the region with key debates in the global arena. The conference, which is supported by the New Zealand and Australian governments and some private sector sponsorship, will place developments in the Pacific Islands region in a broader global context; facilitate greater interest and engagement in the region by external players; identify areas for useful interaction and develop networks between the Pacific Islands and the broader international community.
The conference will explore how the potential of Pacific Islands can be realised through better returns from their resources. The conference will be divided into four sessions. The first will focus on converting natural resources wealth into higher living standards, covering minerals, fisheries and forestry. The second session will focus on the tourism sector. The third session will focus on the Pacific’s human resources and will look at strategies for successful integration into the regional labour market and for better connections through information and communication technologies within the region. The final session will look at leadership in the region. Four separate chairpersons will introduce each theme, and moderate the discussion that will follow each speaker’s presentation.
The New Zealand Government recommended Brown as speaker for the leadership session. He has been invited to speak about leadership in the context of financial management. This has become a vital issue for nearly every country in the world over the last few years and prudent financial management will be important to the ongoing development of the Pacific Island economies. As has been seen over the last few weeks in particular, strong leadership in this area is required to ensure sustainable economic futures.
Pacific Island leaders and a range of policy-makers, business, civil society representatives and opinion leaders have been to attend the conference. The New Zealand Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, will deliver the opening address of the conference. Prime Minister John Key will speak at the opening reception. - Charles Pitt

Herald Issue 554 09 March
- Norm exposes Trio of Doom
- Briefs from PM’s media conference Tuesday
- Tourism Industry ponders $5 million draft strategy
- Norman George resigns from Cook Islands Party
- Letter of Resignation from CIP
- Norman selfish says Prime Minister

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