| 25 March 2025 Nuku’alofa, Tonga– Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers and officials will meet this week on 25 and 26 March in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, for a Special Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM). The Special FEMM will focus on three key regional initiatives: the Pacific Roadmap for Economic Development (PRED); the Climate Finance Access and Mobilisation Strategy (CFAMS); and the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF). Economic Ministers and officials will consider the PRED, a regional framework for enhancing policy coherence and promoting deeper regional economic integration, aligned to the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and its Implementation Plan. Discussions will also focus on the draft CFAM Strategy, which will seek to streamline access, build institutional capacity, and enhance regional collaboration to improve the effectiveness and availability of climate finance. It will also look at unlocking innovative public and private financing to support regional climate initiatives. The Special FEMM will also consider the draft Establishment Agreement (Treaty) of the Pacific Resilience Facility, the first Pacific-led, member-owned and managed and people-centred climate and disaster resilience financing facility. At their meeting in Nuku’alofa in 2024, Pacific Islands Forum Leaders endorsed the Kingdom of Tonga as the host country for the PRF. Set against a complex and dynamic global geopolitical landscape, with the potential to further impact the region’s economic outlook and amplify its vulnerabilities to external shocks and climate-induced disasters, Forum Economic Ministers and officials’ consideration of these regional initiatives will be critical in supporting concerted efforts to deepen regional economic cooperation and integration to advance sustainable development across the Blue Pacific. Tonga last hosted a meeting of the Forum Economic Ministers twelve years ago. A joint press conference will be held at the conclusion of the Special FEMM. |