Distinguished Heads and Representatives of our selected member countries and partners.
Talofa lava, Bula, Bonjour! A very warm welcome to you all to this important workshop which is part of an ongoing process in designing a new Business Plan for our Land Resources Division.
The 2019 – 2023 Business Plan endorsed in Samoa in 2019 was a first for the SPC's Land Resources division. We have learnt a lot of valuable lessons during its lifespan including how to operate remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic which affected 2 years of its implementation.
We are very excited and look forward to the finalising of a new guiding document (or bible) for the next 7 years, 2025 – 2031 so we are clear about how and where we are able to best serve you, our member countries and your needs. These processes are always a balancing act – aspiration and ambition to serve and meet all the needs in our region in agriculture and forestry balanced by resources and capacity. We recognise that we cannot do everything and there are other partners in our sector and considerable bilateral assistance which play critical roles. Our intent is to play to our strengths to meet your articulated needs as best as we can including playing our part in meeting the objectives of the 2050 Growing the Pacific Strategy for Agriculture and Forestry. Your participation over the next two days will help us with this- finding the balance and clarifying our roles, with shaping the business plan to ensure that we have a well-informed, forward-looking document ingrained in our Pacific values and ways of working.
I sincerely thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us here and look forward to fruitful exchanges and discussions.
I want to also acknowledge our Sustineo consultants Douglas Smith and Daniela Medina who will facilitate the process and supported by our SPC's Land Resources division team.
Fa’afetai ma ia manuia. Thank you.