Money Laundering And Terrorist Financing On Agenda For Pacific Islands Forum

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

15 August 2002

Finding a way to effectively eradicate terrorist financing and money laundering through the finance sectors of small island states is high on the agenda for this week's Pacific Islands Forum, according to reports.

Somewhat unusually, the summit is set to be attended by representatives from all 16 forum member states, including Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, who last year sent the then Defence Minister, Peter Reith in his place.

Outgoing Secretary General of the of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Noel Levi welcomed the fact that all member states would be attending Friday's summit meeting in Fiji to discuss the issues at hand.

'This is indeed very pleasing for me, particularly as you may be aware that there had been occasional remarks in the media lately, suggesting that that the Forum Secretariat and by implication the Forum as a regional organization had become unresponsive to the needs of the region,' he announced on Tuesday, adding that: 'One only has to look at the agenda today and the list of distinguished leaders to realise the nonsense of such claims.'

Small Pacific island states such as Nauru and Vanuatu have come under what some have argued is disproportionate pressure from international organisations to close down or dramatically change their finance centres. However, suggestions as to alternative ways in which to stimulate economic growth have not been forthcoming.

'Many of our people are struggling to make ends meet in a rapidly changing social, political and economic environment either because of limited skills of capacity or because the existing conditions do not provide them with opportunities,' Mr Levi was quoted by the AFP news agency as observing this week.

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