Foreign missions should aim to bring ‘prosperity’

By HELEN TARAWA
Foreign relationships and connections should be built with the aim of bringing about prosperity to the people of this country, acting secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade William Dihm says.
Speaking at the presentation of foreign policy documents to Minister Rimbink Pato yesterday, Dihm said it was important in any diplomatic relationship built, that people be considered.
He said there were five things in the diplomatic strategy and the first was that the report sought to strengthen relations with immediate neighbours Australia, Indonesia, Melanesian countries and the wider Pacific.
Dihm said the other area in the strategy was to strengthen Papua New Guineans’ relationship with global partners and the many important organisations that fell under that category.
He said the third aspect of the strategy was to develop and build new partnerships for mutual benefit in trade, development cooperation and investment for people to people exchanges.
Dihm said the fourth one was where PNG could get a lot of credit in the work that was done on climate change.
“We call it good global citizenship and it’s a way of PNG participating in things like gender equality, women’s issues at United Nations, human rights issues countering transnational crimes. All of these things, if we participate with other countries and bring about good solutions,  we are contributing to global international cooperation.
“The final thing is building capacity in the Department the Foreign Service training programme, sending our students to have opportunities abroad.
“All of these five things are part of our strategy of lifting the game and preparing not only for Apec but also for the big challenges that are ahead of us.”