RAROTONGA – Top officials from the Pacific region’s superannuation, provident, sovereign and trust funds, worth $70 billion (US$48 billion), are gathering in Rarotonga this week for a three-day biennial meeting.
The private meeting, starting today at the National Auditorium, will be attended by 50 chief executive officers, chief investment officers, senior board officers and international partners, representing 20 funds from 14 countries across the Pacific.
Damien Beddoes, CEO of the Cook Islands National Superannuation Fund, will chair this Pacific Provident Funds and Social Security Forum (PPFSSF). Beddoes says it’s the first time Cook Islands has hosted the forum.
“The main discussion will be establishing a framework to enable the funds to work together or to co-invest. We are also looking at developing a working group based on this,” he said.
The meeting will also see members establish the new Pacific Islands Investment Forum, an evolution from the PPFSSF, expanding to include all the superannuation funds, provident funds, sovereign funds and trust funds in the Pacific, which Beddoes will lead.
It is also an opportunity for the CEOs to hold high-level talks, review the direction and objectives of the forum, plan education and training programmes, hold their biannual general meeting, and decide the host of the next CEO Forum.
The PPFSSF was first formed in 2005 with seven founding members – since then it has held six forum meetings and grown the membership of the forum to 11 members representing 11 Pacific countries.
In 2015, the forum resolved to approve a Statement of Corporate Intent to drive improvements to the PPFSSF and appoint a secretariat tasked with supporting and delivering on the objectives of the forum.
