TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Foreign Affairs Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi said that countries in the Southwest Pacific must strengthen their relationship in order to face various challenges.
"Connectivity improvement in the southwestern Pacific region is important to answer common challenges," Retno said during the 14th Southwest Pacific Dialogue (SwPD) Ministerial Meeting held on the sidelines of the 49th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and the 23rd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Vientiane, Laos on Monday, July 25, 2016.
Retno added that physical connectivity improvement, particularly related to air and sea, must be supported by the private sector. Retno hopes that under the public-private partnership mechanism, the transportation business sector will support the connectivity in the region.
On the same occasion, Papua New Guinea's Foreign Affairs Minister presented its plan to hold the Workshop on Connectivity on September 29 and 30, 2016. The same event was held in Indonesia back in 2014, resulting in the formation of the SwPD Working Group on Connectivity Development.
The meeting also discussed other important issues, such as the eradication of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and the utilization of renewable energy.
Ministers attending the meeting agreed to reject IUU Fishing, which is frequently linked with other criminal activities, such as human trafficking, corruption, and money laundering. In addition, SwPD member countries emphasized the importance of geothermal, solar and ocean energy utilization as alternative to conventional ones.
The SwPD is a communication forum for countries in the Southwest Pacific region, consisting of Australia, Indonesia, Philippine, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Timor Leste. The forum was established on October 5, 2002, aiming at deliberating political, security, economic, social, and cultural issues in the countries.
Since 2011, Indonesia has promoted the connectivity agenda in SwPD meetings. Indonesia, as the initiator of the forum, hopes that the SwPD will provide concrete results and contributions in boosting the development, particularly related to the connectivity in the region.
YON DEMA | MR
