MOU signed for the establishment of APEC Study Centre

Chief Secretary to Government Isaac Lupari, CBE, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on February 14 with the National Research Institute to establish an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Study Centre in the country.
This will be the 21st APEC Study Centre in the APEC family.
The Chief Secretary said the National Research Institute has now become a partner in working towards the hosting of APEC Papua New Guinea 2018.

“One of the things that we put together is to find out what institution in the country that can be able to help us develop and calibrate some of the policy agendas of the APEC 2018.
“Of course the National Research Institute is one of the institutions that does a lot of research on many of the issues that confronts us today, from economic, to social, to environment, to everything.”
The Chief Secretary said the signing of the MOU is a part of the APEC PNG 2018 preparations to get NRI involved in working with the PNG APEC Secretariat, to design and formulate policy to be ready for discussions come November 2018.
National Research Institute Director Dr Charles Yala said they realize they are behind schedule for the APEC Consortium Conference, which is scheduled for May 2018 and will work hard to prepare for the conference.
“This conference is intended to provide the forum to analyse the themes and sub-themes for the 2018 APEC meeting and is an important event.”
Dr. Yala said they will do what they can do to ensure Papua New Guinea has a successful Consortium Conference and for that matter, a successful APEC PNG 2018.
He said it is the government’s collective interest, and NRI as a government institution, to make APEC PNG 2018 a success.
Dr Yala said the MOU is on the premise that NRI commits to make the APEC Study Centre a success and make the country proud.
Papua New Guinea’s Ambassador to APEC and Senior Official His Excellency Ivan Pomaleu said in the APEC family, there are about 20 APEC Study Centres and Papua New Guinea has just signed off for the last one.
“So PNG has not had an APEC Study Centre until now and so I just want to underscore that this is an important milestone for PNG.
“It serves a very important purpose of ensuring that all policy discussions that our government will have in relation to not just hosting for 2018 but after that, the APEC Study Centre provides an important registry of all the APEC information for all economies.
His Excellency Pomaleu said therefore the APEC Secretariat would like to congratulate the National Research Institute for accepting the challenge to play that role not only for 2018 but it is hoped, for the future as well, in terms of all of Papua New Guinea’s ongoing APEC liaison from this point going forwards.