The Government of New Caledonia and the Pacific Community (SPC) have signed a new four-year partnership agreement in Noumea today that strengthens ties, intensifies SPC’s activities and reconfirms New Caledonia as SPC’s Headquarters.
New Caledonia has housed SPC for almost 75 years and this partnership signing recognises our shared history and our future as one of the Pacific region’s scientific, technical and development organisations supporting the well-being of Pacific peoples.
Mr. Louis Mapou, President of the Government of New Caledonia, and Dr. Stuart Minchin, Director General of the Pacific Community (SPC), signed the new partnership agreement preceded by a traditional indigenous cotume requesting approval by the landowners to continue to work on their lands.
The agreement also aims to promote regional integration in New Caledonia and enable SPC to fully play its role in bringing together all of 27 members. Louis Mapou, President of the Government of New Caledonia declared: “This agreement consolidates the central pillar of our common hut in Nouméa. It sets a course which aims to tighten our ties, to strengthen the action of SPC in New Caledonia and obliges us, in return, to contribute to the major challenges facing the people of our ocean. There is also a common desire to strengthen cooperation for an ever more assertive integration of New Caledonia in the region. This agreement invites us, finally, to cultivate the diversity of our blue Pacific in order to build our region on new foundations and in the unity of the values which characterize our great states and countries of the ocean. »
SPC’s Director General Stuart Minchin said: “We are convinced that New Caledonia and its people can be proud to host the headquarters of the Pacific's leading regional scientific and technical organisation, in the same way that SPC and its headquarters staff are proud to be based in New Caledonia, which represents the Community so well: a Pacific territory deeply rooted in its culture and traditions and so resolutely turned towards the future and modernity. For many of us, New Caledonia has become a second home, where we have relocated to serve the region and we look forward to working more closely with you and your communities over the next four years.”
Within this framework, three main objectives will be developed over a four-year period:
· The first objective involves strengthening the organisation's headquarters in Nouméa. A work plan will be put in place to strengthen SPC's headquarters in New Caledonia and enable the organisation to pursue its development in its host country.
· The second objective concerns technical cooperation between SPC and New Caledonia. It will be implemented through the development of an SPC country strategic commitment in New Caledonia, in line with SPC's 2022-2031 Strategic Plan. This plan aims to strengthen New Caledonia's regional integration and mobilise Caledonian expertise in SPC's regional projects.
· The third objective concerns communication and will be implemented through new governance of the partnership and the establishment of a joint communication plan on the actions implemented within its framework.
February 2024 will also mark 75 years since SPC established its headquarters in New Caledonia.
Useful link:
Photo Album from the signing event.
Media Contacts:
Clotilde Richalet Szuch, Acting Senior Communication Officer, Pacific Community (SPC), Corporate Division | clotilders@spc.int
Ludvina Hnamuko, Head of communications for the government of New Caledonia | [email protected]
For general media enquiries, please contact [email protected]
About SPC:
The Pacific Community has been supporting sustainable development in the Pacific, through science, knowledge and innovation since 1947. It is the principal intergovernmental organisation in the region, owned and governed by its 27 member countries and territories. www.spc.int
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