HONORABLE MR.TIMOCI LESIKIVATUKOULA NATUVA
MINISTER FOR WORKS, TRANSPORT AND PUBLIC UTILITIES
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FIFTEENTH ASIA PACIFIC HEADS OF MARITIME SAFETY AGENCIES (APHOMSA) MEETING NADI, FIJI

OPENING ADDRESS

Westin HOTEL, NADI 6th May 2014
0900 Hours

Salutations

Heads of Maritime Safety Agencies and High Level
Representative from the Asia Pacific Region;
Members of Diplomatic Corps,
Representatives of Development Partners,
Distinguished Guest,
Ladies and Gentlemen.


Ni sa bula vinaka and good morning to you All. Welcome to Fiji. It is a great honor to be here this morning to address you and participate in this most auspicious occasion.

On behalf of the Government of Fiji, it is my privilege to welcome you all to the country and to the Fifteenth Session of the Asia Pacific Heads of Maritime Safety Agency Forum, the first ever to be hosted by the Government of Fiji in partnership with the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji.

Quite apart from the affairs of this international meeting, we hope that you will have the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful islands of Fiji and its hospitality in the usual Pacific Way while you are here.

Talking of the Pacific Way, this meeting today and the next two days is an opportunity for Government policy makers and international experts on maritime safety matters, from the Asia Pacific region to come together and discuss maritime issues and share ideas and experiences on issues of regional importance and to enhance technical cooperation in these areas.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the theme for this international meeting is “Strengthening Maritime Cooperation in the Asian Pacific Region”. This theme is quite relevant and timely in the face of rising oil prices that is making international shipping services quite costly for countries in the world and in the Asia Pacific Region to bear; climate change phenomenon that is causing a lot of disruptions and revision of ships sailing plans due to unexpected weather events and lastly ships safety and security due to unexpected boarding of ships by international “sea pirates” and “terrorists” that have drained and transferred millions of dollars of clean money of international shipping companies to the dirty economy of the crime world for the benefit of international terrorists and sea pirates.

Ladies and Gentlemen, international sea routes in the Asia Pacific region is one of the busiest in the world and is always busy and crowded with so many shipping traffics. Besides, these sea routes are always dangerous and treacherous because there are narrow sea lanes in many places with so many under water small sea mountains and fringing reefs. Hence, navigating through them is always a big challenge and quite scary at times, despite the improved ship technology loaded on the vessels including the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other technological gadgets.

Therefore, the recent re-emergence and re-surgence in activities of international sea pirates and terrorists around the Arabian seas could easily filtered down to the Asian Region around Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysian waters, that could make international shipping services in the Asian Pacific region very risky, costly and scary.

Even their presence in the Pacific region cannot be totally discounted now. All these maritime security issues make international shipping services in the Asia Pacific region very risky and challenging now and in the years to come.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why strengthening of maritime cooperation in the Asia Pacific region is very important. Therefore, the convening of this international meeting here in Fiji, for Heads of Maritime Safety Agencies to share ideas and experiences in the areas of maritime safety is quite important and timely so that a better Roadmap can be produced to address all these issues and concerns on transport, for the benefit of our people and communities here in the Asia Pacific region.

Talking of transport in the Asia Pacific region last month, Transport Ministers from twenty countries around the Pacific met here at the Sofitel Hotel to discuss, dialogue and share ideas and experiences on energy and transport matters that are important for the sustainable development of small island countries in the Pacific. After three days of intense discussions on energy and transport matters, the meeting finally finished off with a Denarau Outcome document that covers wide ranging issues on energy and transport that are considered critical for sustainable development of people in the Pacific region.

These key outcome issues include:

• Regional Search and Rescue (SAR) issues,
• Maritime policy framework,
• Data sharing agreement on Maritime Transport,
• Standard of training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW Convention) issues,
• Pacific Islands Domestic Ship Safety Program (PIDSS),
• Transport Safety and Security,
• Hydrographic services to meet international obligations and national transport infrastructures,
• Improved access to State Ports Control, and
• Establishment of a Central Pacific Shipping Commission

Hence, the Denarau Outcome is an all-encompassing document covering all the required aspects of maritime transport in the Pacific region. Now turning to this APHOMSA meeting, I note in the Agenda that this meeting shall focus on four key pillars including;
1. Regional Cooperation,
2. Protection of the Marine Environment,
3. Safety at Sea, including Seafarer Welfare, and
4. Maritime Search and Rescue

Therefore three key pillars in this Agenda are also covered in the Denarau Communiqué. Only Regional Cooperation is not covered.
On the whole, this agenda and its four key pillars pose the great challenge to our developing nations especially to smaller pacific islands states because of the cost of complying with applicable international conventions, the lack of employment opportunities for our seafarers in the pacific and the lack of resources and equipment to cover large search and rescue region allocated to each state.

In terms of the agenda, the major challenge for States today, is how do we achieve it, given all our vulnerability and therefore, the focus of this forum must be in the development of a strategic plan or framework centering on the four pillars on how developing small island states could be assisted in achieving compliance. Such forums should be driven by outcomes and resolutions that can measure its success.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in terms of seeking solutions to these problems, technical cooperation in the region and regional integration of national efforts and pooling of resources by national Government and development partners, is necessary.

This I presume is one of the key objectives of your meetings in the next two days to discuss dialogue and share ideas on these issues can be addressed in order to come up with feasible practical solutions to our common problems in the areas of regional cooperation, safety of life at sea including seafarer welfare, protection of the marine environment and maritime search and rescue for the Asia Pacific Region.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as people of the Asia Pacific region we share some common maritime issues. Apart from the highly populated countries of the Asian Region, the Pacific is unevenly populated with a collective population of 10 million people. Our communities are spread out in uneven land masses from the big resources, rich and volcanic islands of Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon, and Fiji to the small coral atolls of Tuvalu, Kiribati and Marshall Islands. In the Asia Pacific region we share similar challenges as archipelagic states with limited resources to cover our search and rescue regions. What binds us together as the Asia Pacific people is that we share the vast resources of large oceans and also their vulnerabilities and associated problems.

While these oceans are our major lifeblood and a source of life for many of our communities from the vast mineral resources and fishery resources they offer to our people, they are also a major source of our vulnerability because they are the main breeding ground of tropical cyclones, tidal waves, tsunamis and flooding when they rear their ugly head. With climate change phenomenon taking place around the globe the frequency of these natural disasters is becoming more pronounced and severe and more frequent for our individual economies to bear. The cost of these disasters on some of our small economies, especially on our infrastructures is large and often unsustainable. In most cases, this unexpected events and natural disasters negatively impacts on the regions interest in achieving sustainable development.

Ladies and Gentlemen, though some of our countries are small and resource poor, we have many maritime issues that are common to all of us, we are still confident that we can seek and find solutions to these problems in the way of dialogue and sharing ideas and experiences and most especially in technical cooperation that can assist us in our development efforts. It is in this context, therefore, that regional and international meetings like this one is an important forum where we can come together with our international experts to map out conducive Framework and strategic direction to address those problems and challenges facing our individual countries.
Furthermore, with the advancement of new modern technologies, this kind of international gathering is an ideal opportunity for us all to seek the best way forward to addressing our challenges so that our countries are able to effectively discharge their international obligation as flag states, coastal states and or port states in the region, much more effectively.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I note that you have a very exhaustive and grueling two days of intense discussion on the agenda that are of national importance to our respective countries in your program.

I know that some of these maritime developments and issues highlighted in your program are not easy to reach an agreement on as they are quite sensitive to national Governments. But nevertheless, I believe in the consensus building in such regional meetings such as this one, taking into account the Pacific and Asian Way of reaching consensus on such issues.

Ladies and Gentlemen, that is the challenge that I pose for you today and hope that the resolutions and outcomes of this meeting will go a long way in addressing these maritime issues and challenges for the benefit of our people and of our nations in the region.

With those few words, I have great pleasure in declaring this Fifteenth session of the Asia Pacific Heads of Maritime Safety Agency Meeting OPEN.

Vinaka Vakalevu

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