PNG Senior Official to APEC, Ambassador Ivan Pomaleu, has assumed the Chairmanship of the APEC Senior Officials Meeting Steering Committee on Economic Technical Cooperation.
Pomaleu took on the role during the First Senior Official and Related Meetings in Nha Trang, Vietnam recently.
The role is seen as a huge show of confidence in PNG from the twenty APEC Economies and is the beginning of Papua New Guinea's chairing of APEC in 2018.
Ambassador Pomaleu show cased remarkable leadership during the discussions there.
Also in this meeting, Papua New Guinea proposed a paper on cross fora collaboration that received overwhelming support.
The PNG delegation presented several concept notes and information papers at the different foras during the two-week long meetings, ranging from tourism, fisheries, forestry, business mobility, competition policy, anti-corruption etc.
Since the announcement by Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, in 2013 to host the APEC Summit in 2018, PNG’S participation has been dynamic in recent years.
This is through its participation in all the sub-foras including the Chairmanship of several APEC foras from 2014 onwards.
The progression has been welcomed by APEC, as PNG’s participation has grown since 1993, and is one that the policy teams have worked hard on.
Loop file photo (Credit: Cedric Patjole)