The new Pacific director for the World Bank says there are massive gains to be made in the Pacific if countries can get things right.
Michel Kerf will oversee the World Bank's regional portfolio which includes 55 projects across 13 countries worth more than $US1billion.
Mr Kerf told Koroi Hawkins the Bank has identified potential areas which countries could focus on improving and developing and two major risk areas which need to be mitigated to maximise gains across the region.
Photo: 123rf
Transcript
MICHEL KERF: We looked at what could be gained basically by getting things right on fisheries, on deep sea mining, on tourism, on the knowledge economy, taking advantage of opportunities that they had in terms of labour mobility. We also looked at how to mitigate two major risks one is of course vulnerability to climate change, the other one is the non-communicable disease crisis in fact which many of the countries face and we try to quantify the benefits of getting these things right. So for many countries it could make a very, very big difference indeed in terms of per capita revenue. The difference between the business-as-usual scenario and the getting-things-right scenario can be quite impressive in many cases. Countries like Kiribati for example could basically double their per capita income compared to current trends. And something close to the same applies to Fiji or to Tuvalu for example. So you know the possibility of achieving quite impressive results indeed.
KOROI HAWKINS: And you are confident that Pacific countries will get things right?
MICHEL KERF: Well I am confident that it is possible I think to go a long way towards reaping these benefits. Whether everything will be done to the absolute best extent maybe not. But I think that they are things that can certainly be done which build on initiatives that countries have already taken. Which could make a very big difference. Just to give you two examples quickly, one is on fisheries I think the way fisheries are managed in the Pacific is actually really first rate it is frontier practices. But there is a possibility to build on that and to use the high degree of technical capacity that has actually been reached in the Pacific on the issue of fishery management and to actually improve upon the current system. Which is a collective system of managing what is obviously a shared resource. And doing this would really make a very very big difference for those countries that are particularly reliant on the revenues that they derive from fisheries such as Kiribati and Tuvalu for example. Another example where I believe or another area where I believe that change is indeed possible would be on labour mobility. And I think it is not very difficult to imagine that in the future the number of Pacific Islanders working abroad could grow without in anyway putting a strain on receiving countries and also the type of economic activities in which they would be engaged could diversify beyond horticulture. So old age care is clearly an area where there are increasing needs in countries like Australia, New Zealand also South Korea, Japan and where Pacific Islanders could possibly provide services that are needed in those advanced economies. Or a number of vocational type of areas such as working as carpenters for example or skills of that type could also open up new areas of opportunities for Pacific Islanders and the potential income that they could derive is quite enormous in terms of income derived from overseas employment for other Pacific Islanders who would be working abroad we are talking of something that could be an additional $US12 billion for the Pacific workers by 2040. So very big numbers indeed.
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