HONOLULU (PIDP\/CPIS) — To prepare for the start of the Sixth Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders (PICL) summit Tuesday, former Fiji President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara convened a brief meeting Monday of the PICL Standing Committee at Honolulu’s Ala Moana Hotel.<\/p>\n
The committee of presidents, prime minister and other island leaders quickly, and without dissent, approved the agenda for the two-day meeting January 30-31 that will address the topic, “In An Era of Globalization: How Do We Call For and Share With Others?”<\/p>\n
Cook Islands Prime Minister Dr. Terepai Maoate said the theme is especially relevant to the region’s changing circumstances.<\/p>\n
During the brief late afternoon session, East-West Center President Dr. Charles Morrison formally welcomed the leaders to Hawai’i, wishing them an “enormous aloha.”<\/p>\n
The Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program, under Director Dr. Sitiveni Halapua, serves as PICL’s secretariat and research arm.<\/p>\n
Morrison said PIDP is “one of our highest priorities” and is a “highly successful program.”<\/p>\n
During a discussion of PIDP’s research priorities, Ratu Mara said, “I would like to sound the alarm about our marine resources,” and encouraged more research to assure their preservation.<\/p>\n
The leaders and officials from 22 Pacific island countries and territories will meet tonight for a welcoming session hosted by former Hawai’i Governor George Ariyoshi, currently Chairman of the East-West Center. (Al Hulsen)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To prepare for the start of the Sixth Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders (PICL) summit Tuesday, former Fiji President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara convened a brief meeting Monday of the PICL Standing Committee at Honolulu’s Ala Moana Hotel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55895","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}