Papua New Guinea’s Leonard Louma is the new Director-General of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).
Mr Louma’s appointment was announced by MSG chairperson and PNG Prime Minister James Marape in an official statement issued in Port Moresby on February 1, 2022.
He succeeds former director-general Amena Yauvoli from Fiji who had served the Secretariat from 2016 to 2020.
Mr Marape said Mr Louma’s appointment was a result of a lengthy and rigorous merit-based process of appointing a new director-general.
He said the process of recruitment of the new head of the MSG was done in accordance with the agreed policy process of recruiting for a suitable candidate, adopted at the 20th Leaders’ Summit in Honiara, Solomon Islands on June 26, 2015.
In a statement from the MSG Secretariat in Vanuatu yesterday, Mr Marape congratulated Mr Louma on behalf of the MSG leaders and noted his confidence in him to continue to lift the visions, spirit, and solidarity of the MSG and lead the group to new heights.
In the statement, the MSG Secretariat stated it understood Mr Louma had officially accepted the appointment, and preparations were now progressing to enable him to take up his posting in the MSG Secretariat headquarters in Port Vila.
At a glance:
- Mr Louma OBE hails from Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea
- He is a former seasoned diplomat and a senior public servant with more than 30 years of senior management experience in both the government and private sector
- He has served in the PNG permanent mission to the United Nations in New York (USA) and PNG embassies in Paris, France, and Beijing in China
- Mr Louma was responsible for opening the PNG Embassy in Paris as Charge D’Affaires and was PNG’s roving Ambassador to APEC, ASEAN, ESCAP, and concurrently PNG High Commissioner to Singapore
- Nationally, he has served as head of several departments within the PNG Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Prime Minister; in the latter, served as Special Advisor on International Relations, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs matters to the Prime Minister, and subsequently as Chief of Staff to the late Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare from 2005 to 2011
- Regionally, he has been involved in the development and implementation of many regional initiatives – such as the original Pacific Plan and its successor in the Framework for Pacific Regionalism, MSG’s 2038 Prosperity for all Plan as a member of an Eminent Person, The MSG Trade Agreement, Re-enlistment of New Caledonia on the UN list of Non Self Governing Territories, development and negotiation of the binding tariffs for PNG’s WTO membership bid, and the development of the Pacific Island Forum’s Boe Declaration
- Prior to his appointment, Mr Louma continues to be engaged privately as a freelance consultant providing strategic advisory services to the PNG Government, including strategic business advisories to several private organisations and businesses in his home country.
Source: MSG Secretariat, Vanuatu
