PORT MORESBY, 25 APRIL 2019 (POST COURIER) – Papua New Guinea Chief Secretary to Government Isaac Lupari co-hosted the inaugural meeting of Pacific Heads of Public Service with his Australian counterpart, Secretary for Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Martin Parkinson, in Brisbane on April 15.
The meeting, which brought together public service leaders from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Australia, Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand provided an opportunity for engagement on critical issues facing the Pacific region.
Leaders considered a range of issues of importance to the Pacific region, including how public sector institutional linkages can be enhanced, opportunities for economic engagement and collaboration and shared regional challenges.
“The fact is that there is very strong political engagement across the Pacific, which is facilitated through a range of multilateral and bilateral forums, but what has been missing for a long time are the critical people to people links within our respective public service agencies,” Lupari said.
Public service heads attending the meeting agreed that there would be value in advancing public sector capacity through continued engagement and exchanges, endorsed the Pacific Public Sector Centre of Excellence, and agreed to strengthen arrangements for Pacific wide labour mobility, including consideration of enhanced in-country training, labour mobility liaison officers and improved processes for managing the re-integration of workers.
The meeting also acknowledged the broad range of security challenges facing the region and agreed to continued efforts to enhance economic integration.
The meeting concluded with a commitment by public service heads to meet on an annual basis, with continued bilateral engagement to take place during the course of the year.
The next meeting is expected to take place in New Zealand in March 2020.
