The Pacific Heads of the Prime Ministers’ Department met yesterday (4/11/22) for a roundtable discussion on COVID-19 shared experiences and lessons learned.
The virtual meeting was chaired by the Chief Executive Officer of the New Zealand Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Brook Barrington, and attended by Mr. Yogesh Karan, Fiji’s Permanent Secretary Office of the Prime Minister; Professor Glyn Davis, Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Australia; Ambassador Ivan Pomaleu, Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and National Executive Council of Papua New Guinea; and Mr Agafili Shem Leo Chief, Executive Officer of the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Samoa.
The annual meeting built on the strong engagements between the Pacific countries and focused on strengthening collaboration in the areas of recovery post-COVID-19.
This is the second meeting for the senior officials, as the first was held in person in 2019 in Brisbane, Australia.
While highlighting Fiji’s experience at the height of COVID and post-pandemic, Mr Karan said the pandemic wiped out 9 years of growth and severely affected the Fijian economy particularly, the tourism industry and the Fijian Government had to take strong decisive policy measures and introduced a strategic framework to combat the pandemic, build resilient infrastructure and strengthen Fiji's economic recovery.
Mr Karan also thanked donor partners such as Australia, New Zealand, India, and Japan for providing Fiji with vaccines despite their domestic challenges with COVID- 19.
Mr Karan also recognized Fijian civil servants who had worked hard during the pandemic, especially the first-line responders.
Meanwhile, Fiji stands ready to host the next in-person Pacific Heads of Prime Ministers’ Department meeting in 2023.