The deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Min Zhu, says he expects a conference on building economic resilience on Saturday in Samoa to achieve four key objectives.
More than 100 delegates from 11 Pacific countries, academics and representatives of international agencies will meet in Apia to discuss 'Fostering Inclusive Growth and Building Resilience'.
Mr Zhu says the Pacific countries have weathered the financial turbulence in recent years reasonably well but they need to prepare for future shocks.
He says the first step is to improve communication and understanding through open conversation on the issues.
"This is very important. The second issue, the understanding also means the common assessments of the current situations then form the common objectives, so then at the end they will [be able to come with] some policy recommendations. So then we can jointly work together into the action plan. So that is the whole thing we want to get out of this conference."
