Polye moots Pacific integration

Business, Normal
Source:

The National, Wednesday October 16th, 2013

 IMF and World Bank chairman Don Polye has pitched for economic integration in the Pacific, telling its leaders it is the only way to grow their countries’ economies.

Polye, who was in Washington DC for his swearing-in as chairman for World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told his colleagues at a luncheon on Sunday (Monday, local time) that their economy would only be elevated if they worked hand-in-hand and focused on their economic agenda. 

He said the economic integration in the region could only be achieved if they exerted more efforts in trade, public-private partnership and labour market.

 “When we continue to act individually, the economic challenge gap is widened. 

“We have to integrate our knowledge and expertise … the people-to-people and business-to-business integration is a catalyst for establishing wider trade link in the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.

Polye said the region needs to position itself but as individual economies in the light of global economic challenges. 

He said the trend of the economies was improving. 

“The recovery in the US and Euro-zone is moderate … it gives us confidence to position ourselves from the improvement that we are seeing from outside.”

Polye reiterated that micro and macro-economic and public service reforms must take place for their economy to survive. 

 “The PNG government has already approved a PPP policy and a legislation to be considered for enactment to integrate private and public financing for impact infrastructure development outside of the budgetary expenditure programmes.

“PNG is a recipient of the Asian Development Bank funds for infrastructure development to help cushion budget deficits in the country,” he said.

Polye said PNG’s drive on creating a world’s risk mitigation centre for the fragile states has intereste the Commonwealth Secretariat, WB and IMF Asia-Pacific constituency and urged them to design policy guidelines to safeguard vulnerable economies against natural disasters.