NOUMEA, New Caledonia\u2014Pacific Island countries and territories at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community\u2019s 10th\u00a0governing body conference in Noumea have called for the establishment of a Pacific Community Center for Ocean Science.<\/p>\n
The center, to be hosted at SPC, will draw on the scientific and technical expertise across the organization\u2019s different work programs, including fisheries and geoscience, and look to complement ongoing regional efforts for the sustainable management of the Pacific region\u2019s oceanic resources.<\/p>\n
The decision was made as SPC\u2019s 26 country and territory members deliberated on the strategic direction of SPC as the organization marked its 70th\u00a0year of operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The more than 40 country and territory representatives\u2014including several heads of state\u2014as well as development partners contributed to the thematic discussion centered on the theme \u201cInnovative Partnerships for Sustainable Development,\u201d with keynote addresses by the Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine; the European Union\u2019s high-level facilitator for outreach activities on the post-Cotonou agreement, Pascal Lamy; and the director-general\u00a0of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano.<\/p>\n
In this regard, Pacific Island representatives congratulated SPC on its technical cooperation agreement with IAEA and encouraged further exploration of innovative partnerships to support sustainable development priorities and efforts in the Pacific Islands region.<\/p>\n
They recognized SPC\u2019s achievements over the past 18 months and has encouraged the organization to continue of its path of prioritization with a focus on high impact areas consistent with its mandate and capabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Conference also re-appointed Dr. Colin Tukuitonga as SPC director-general for a further two-year term.<\/p>\n
The 10th Conference of the Pacific Community concluded with a 70th anniversary celebration with its 26 member countries and territories and partners.<\/p>\n
Cook Islands will host the 11th SPC Conference in 2019. (SPC)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NOUMEA, New Caledonia\u2014Pacific Island countries and territories at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community\u2019s 10th\u00a0governing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[17801,4690,389,166],"class_list":["post-257393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pacific","tag-iaea","tag-pacific-community","tag-pacific-islands","tag-spc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}