THE Pacific is not doing a good job at implementing innovative ideas and sharing each other’s experiences, says Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.
While speaking at the Pacific Islands Development Forum Plenary Session on Governance and Institutional Issues at the Pullman Nadi Bay Resort and Spa Fiji yesterday, Mr Bainimarama expressed his concern for the Pacific and its approach to development projects.
“There is a huge amount of white space in the Pacific that is currently being missed by other regional players, which the PIDF must step in to fill,” he said.
“At the moment, I’m concerned that Pacific Island Countries are suffering from an insistence on implementing one-size-fits-all development approaches.
“We’re not doing a good enough of job of listening and learning from each other’s experiences.
“We’re certainly not doing a good job at actually putting forward innovative solutions ourselves.
“The PIDF needs to become a space where it’s safe to put forward ambitious plans of action.
“A space where we can openly share experiences, good and bad, on implementing those bold ideas.
“Where possible, we must report on trackable metrics that assess the impact of those various solutions.
“At the moment, it too often seems as if we’re all trying to bend the world’s experiences to our own realities on the ground.”
He said the Pacific was unlike the rest of the world.
“We need to do a better job of leveraging our own ingenuity and our own experiences in formulating uniquely Pacific policy solutions.
“That my friends are what real leadership entails. That is what this forum must facilitate and empower its membership to achieve.”
He said the PIDF must be a space that attracted the best and brightest of Pacific minds to think at a high level about how innovative solutions could be practically implemented across the region.
