SUVA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Fiji's Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said on Friday that the island nation should sit at the center of the region as the hub of travel, trade, ICT and development by 2050.
Opening the Fiji National Consultation Workshop on 2050 Strategy of the Blue Pacific Continent in capital city Suva, Bainimarama said Fiji already has a 20-Year National Development Plan which lays out the strategic vision across every sector of the government.
The document is the starting point in Fiji's journey towards 2050, he said, and this strategy will shape the development of the region in the next 30 years.
He said every economy in the region must achieve net-zero global emissions -- zero excuses by 2050, and they must have built a resilient Pacific -- one that is adapted to the worsening climate impacts.
"By 2050, our region's oceans must be secured by powerful protections that preserve their bounty and beauty for all time. By 2050, we must call home a continent connected by air, by sea and by technology," he said.
Fiji can and should sit at the center, as the hub of travel, trade, ICT and development; and by that mid-century mark, the divide between the developed and developing nations in the region must have given way to a level playing field, one defined by equal outcomes and opportunity, he added.
As for next year's Pacific Islands Forum to be hosted by Fiji, the prime minister said as leaders gather in the country, Fiji's leadership of this forum will determine the quality of regionalism that emerges from the ashes of this pandemic and this strategy will be at the heart of its ambition. Enditem
