MAXIMISING Impacts of Regional Programmes at National Level is the theme of the 6th Conference of the Pacific Community that was opened in Nuku'alofa on October 12.

The two-days tri-annual conference of the governing body of the SPC was attended by representatives from 22 member countries.

The conference was officially opened by the Princess Regent, HRH Princess Pilolevu Tuita. In her opening address the princess acknowledged SPC as the oldest and largest regional organization serving the South and North Pacific region.

She said that the SPC was established in 1947, financed by the developed countries such as France, Australia, Netherlands, New Zealand, UK and USA, with a regional mandate, and during the past 62 years it had made significant contribution to the development of Tonga and the region.

She noted with interest the theme of this year's Conference, Maximising Impacts of Regional Programmes at National Level. She said it is an interesting view "to see how regional programmes affect challenges faced by the Pacific in terms of natural disaster like the recent tsunami, depletion of natural resources such as tuna, the increasing effect of Global Warming, and most importantly how such programs react under the current Global Financial Crisis that is felt around the world."

More offices

SPC Director General Dr Jimmie Rodgers told Matangi Tonga Online the conference's theme is the very the heart of SPC's existence and represented decisions made at the 4th Conference of the Pacific Community in Palau in 2005.

He said it directed the Secretariat to move closer to the people and spread out beyond its headquarters in Noumea and Suva regional office. They have now set up offices in Pohnpei, Honiara and Vanuatu.

Tonga had proposed that SPC allocate some of its services to be set up in Tonga and we would look into that during this meeting as well as the Final Report from the 39th Meeting of the Committee of Representatives of Governments held in Nuku'alofa last week.

"This is a historical meeting because it charts the course of future of the organisation."

During the two-day conference Joint Country Strategies aligning work of regional organisations to national development strategies would be presented and delegates will share benefits of SPC regional services at the national level.

The conference will conclude with the adoption of a Communique on October 13.

March

The opening ceremony of the 6th Conference of the Pacific Community, started with a short march from the Janfull Dateline Hotel, where most of the delegates stayed to the Fa'onelua Convention Centre.

The march was lead by the Tonga College brass band, followed by flag bearers from the government primary school children carrying national flags of each of the 22 countries represented and delegates.

At the Fa'onelua Centre, before the opening service started there was a minute's silence in remembrance of the many lives lost in the tsunami devastation in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.

Delegates who attended the Conference included the Premier of Niue Hon Toke Talagi, Tongan PM Hon Dr Feleti Sevele and representatives from American Samoa, Australia, Cook Island, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, France, Tahiti, Kiribati, Marshall Island, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Island, Tokelau, Tuvalu, USA, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna and Pitcairn Islands.