REMARKS: Opening remarks by DSG Desna Solofa at the Pacific Regional Quality Policy Inception Workshop

Opening Remarks delivered by the Pacific Islands Forum Deputy Secretary General, Desna Solofa at the Pacific Regional Quality Policy Inception Workshop

21 May 2025, Nadi, Fiji. 

Permanent Secretary Shaheen Ali,

Distinguished representatives from donor partners and implementing agencies of the Pacific Quality Infrastructure Initiative,

Senior trade and quality officials,

Ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the Secretary General and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Inception Workshop of the Pacific Regional Quality Policy—our new regional roadmap to improve the quality of goods and services produced and consumed in the Blue Pacific.

As you will know, Quality Infrastructure comprises the rules, institutions, and service providers that collectively ensure that goods and services meet established requirements. When meeting these requirements become essential for our products to be recognised as top-quality globally, quality infrastructure becomes a key enabler for our businesses to thrive, create jobs, and drive economic development through exports.

Take kava, for example. Pacific countries worked together to have an international standard adopted in 2020. It gave our traditional product clear quality requirements that producers can follow to trade it safely, and profitably, around the world. Building on this achievement, we are now working with partners to develop additional standards and help producers meet them, so that the value of our green gold can continue to grow. This includes work on geographical indications and standards for other value-added kava-based products.

This example shows why Quality Infrastructure was identified as a regional priority under the Pacific Aid-for-Trade Strategy 2020–2025. By supporting the quality upgrade of Pacific products, it enables these products to access new markets more easily, command better prices, and offset some of the structural constraints our producers face — such as small sizes and high transport costs.

In other words, Quality Infrastructure is one of the tools our region can leverage to deliver the economic ambitions of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific: to establish a sustainable and resilient model of development for our region.

Standards can promote a wide range of objectives — protecting consumer health, supporting energy transitions, and strengthening resilience to natural disasters. This means the potential for Quality Infrastructure to contribute to our broader development goals is enormous. While the current focus of the Pacific Quality Infrastructure Initiative (PQII) is rightly on trade - our hope is that as we strengthen its foundations, these same systems will increasingly support a broader range of development needs.

The value of Quality Infrastructure does not end here. It is also an area where the benefits of regional cooperation are among the greatest. Regional collaboration is often the only viable way to build a fully-fledged quality infrastructure for many of our Forum Members, in particular our Smaller Islands States and LDCs. Some members may lack the capacity to adapt international standards to local conditions, to purchase and maintain advanced measurement equipment, or to establish and accredit testing laboratories and certification bodies. Regional cooperation offers practical, cost-effective solutions to each of these challenges, making quality tools accessible to all our members.

Let me also highlight that our Blue Pacific region is not alone in recognising the value of working together on quality. The Caribbean adopted a Regional Quality Policy in 2019, aimed at improving competitiveness, consumer protection, and access to international markets. Africa, too, has taken similar steps. In 2021, the African Union adopted a continental Africa Quality Policy to guide the development of quality infrastructure across its member states and regions. The very work that you have begun by developing our own Pacific Regional Quality Policy demonstrates that we are on the right path to join this global movement.

Identifying regional solutions alongside governance mechanisms to implement them, and the priority sectors where they should be deployed, is the core objective of this workshop.

While this is an inception workshop, the good news is that we are not starting from scratch. Over the past five years, we have made steady progress. From the endorsement of the Regional Quality Statement in 2019, at this very location, we moved on to develop and implement a Pacific Quality Infrastructure Medium-Term Framework for 2020–2024. This included conducting various needs assessments, setting up regional committees on standards, metrology, and testing, and delivering results such as the development of regional standards for frozen cassava and building energy efficiency, the supply of essential trade measurement equipment, and capacity building for inspectors and laboratory staff.

The implementation of the PQI Medium-Term Framework (2020–2024) has already laid strong foundations. Of the 38 recommendations set out in the Framework, 73% are either fully, or partly implemented. This is a strong result. It reflects our region’s commitment to improving quality systems, and it confirms the value of a coordinated regional policy to help all of our countries move forward together.

Simply put, the Pacific Quality Infrastructure has started to build strong foundations, giving us a pathway to strengthen our regional approach to quality. Today’s Workshop marks another important milestone in our collective journey.

Over the next three days, we will:

• Review the findings of the technical assessments undertaken since 2020;
• Prioritise regional actions and sectors for inclusion in the new Pacific Regional Quality Policy; and
• Discuss the best way to govern this collective regional effort.

The outcomes of this Workshop will feed into Ministerial discussions later this year, and guide how we direct investments into our quality infrastructure systems over the medium term.

This workshop is designed to be a highly participatory process, to ensure that every voice is heard. As we look ahead, I encourage us all to utilise the experience and time of the technical experts with us this week, and to work together to align the components of our PQI partnership towards shared goals and objectives. Quality Infrastructure may sound technical, but it is also deeply human. It affects the health of our families, the livelihoods of our producers, and the credibility of our institutions.

I am confident that, through our collective wisdom, we can develop a pragmatic and forward-looking Pacific Regional Quality Policy, one that responds to our unique realities and supports our shared regional ambitions.

With that, I wish you all an engaging and productive Workshop.

Thank you.

[ENDS]