A new Melanesian Spearhead Group regional Police Academy will have enormous benefits for the region in areas of training, employment exposure and marketability.
The proposal was discussed at the MSG Foreign Ministers meeting in Suva today.
“This is building on the need for cooperation in security, law and order situation where challenges we face are similar,” meeting chairman and Fiji’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola said.
“The proposed Police Academy can also be utilised to train our police officers for UN Peacekeeping duties, and thus creating (as is evident in Fiji’s case) employment, exposure and marketability of our people.
“There needs to be clarity of vision, focusing on our collective comparative advantage in the area of trade, sustainable resource harvest, manufacturing, training of expertise and education.”
The minister’s meeting also heard that collaborative efforts and resources needs to be allocated to key sectors where the return to our nationals can be realized effectively and timely.
This will have a huge bearing to the region as the interest of development partners can only be sustained if we can demonstrate our political and socio- economic relevance in the Pacific Island region.
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