PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill welcomes Pacific heads to Forum

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister  Peter O’Neill has welcomed the arrival of regional leaders attending the Pacific Island Forum this week in Port Moresby.

With several leaders already in Port Moresby, a ceremonial welcome will be held tomorrow night then leaders will get to work on Wednesday morning with an agenda that includes issues such as dealing with climate change, enhancing disaster preparedness and reducing cervical cancer among Pacific Islands’ women. Prime Minister Hon. Peter O’Neill said the world economy faces the most uncertain period in recent history making this a particularly important regional summit.

"The global economy is under pressure and we are seeing an increase in climate induced disasters, so this is a time when countries of like-minded must work together," he said. "When we look around the Asia-Pacific economy we see a slowdown in major markets and uncertainty in commodities. "As a region the Pacific will come together as partners to join our collective strengths.

"We have tremendous resources across our island nations and we need to work together to ensure that we get the best market advantage now and into the future.” The Prime Minister said enhancing preparedness for disasters, particularly disasters that occur as a consequence of climate change, will be an important topic of discussion between Leaders.

"In our region we are seeing more climate related disasters. This includes weather patterns such as tropical storms and flooding in one part of the year then droughts and frost in other months. Our climate is more unpredictable than ever before and we must prepare for this to continue and be ready for the worst case scenarios. "We in the Pacific did not cause climate change, but we suffer because of it. As a region we must work together to build our collective capacity to be ready for these weather problems.” Other meetings of the Forum leaders include the meeting of small island states today and the post-forum dialogue on Friday.