Prime Minister of Fiji and Minister for Itaukei Affairs and Sugar Industry s2

Honourable Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, CF(Mil),OSt.J, MSD, jssc, psc

Prime Minister of Fiji and Minister for iTaukei Affairs and Sugar Industry

SPEECH AT THE LAUNCH OF THE GREEN GROWTH FRAMEWORK FOR FIJI

Suvavou House Mon. 1 June 2015 SUVA 1715 Hours

Honourable Cabinet Ministers; Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps; Representatives of International and Regional Organisations; Representatives of Civil Society and the Private Sector; Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen;

Bula vinaka and a very good evening to you all.

This is an important day for Fiji – the launch of our Green Growth Framework that will form the blueprint for Fiji’s development now and in decades to come.

Because it will be at the core of the national development plans we are currently formulating – one for the next five years and the other for the next twenty years to 2035.

I’m especially pleased to be here to officially launch this document so soon after the principles it contains were a central theme of the deliberations I chaired in Bangkok last week at the 71st Session of UNESCAP – the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Page | 1 I was able to share Fiji’s experience of developing this Green Growth Framework with my fellow Leaders at ESCAP. And there was great interest in the fact that we are the first Pacific Islands nation to take this path.

As you all know, the issue of sustainable development is one of the most pressing challenges for every nation. We are all striving – to a greater or lesser extent - to strike a balance between our overwhelming desire to exploit our resources to raise the living standards of our people. And the overwhelming imperative to utilise those resources in a sustainable manner and protect them for future generations.

The Green Growth journey is one that every nation must take and I’m very proud that Fiji has now embarked on this journey with a clear vision of where we want to go and how we need to get there.

As I stressed at my meetings in Thailand and before that in Japan, it’s a journey that no sector of any society can embark on independently. For any Government to do so without taking everyone with it – whether it is the private sector, civil society or individual citizens – is utterly pointless.

Put simply, we are doomed to failure in our quest for sustainable development unless we all take this journey together. And I’m very gratified that in building Fiji’s Green Growth Framework, we have had such eager co-operation and engagement from all walks of national life, along with the valuable assistance of our development partners.

I want to place on record my Government’s appreciation for the way in which you have all collaborated in this crucial endeavour – which, if fully implemented, will guarantee the sustainability of all aspects of our national development in Fiji. And keep our trust with the Fijian people today and for generations to come.

I especially want to thank the Asian Development Bank and ESCAP for the support they have provided in formulating this Framework. And I would also like to acknowledge the team from the World Wildlife Fund Pacific – led by Mr Kalo Williams – for volunteering their services to create the innovative design and layout of the document itself.

Page | 2 As with our Constitution, our Green Growth Framework - with its theme of “restoring the balance in development that is sustainable for our future” – has been translated into iTaukei and Fiji-Hindi. So this is a vision we can share with every Fijian as we encourage them to get behind this document and the great principles it espouses.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, As I said in Bangkok last week, there are some things we cannot control as Fijians, such as the terrible threat to our way of life in the Pacific Islands posed by sea level rises caused by climate change.

I said a great deal about this last week and will keep hammering the theme all the way to the World Climate Summit in Paris in November. Because we have precisely six months to shake the developed world out of its complacency. And embrace the absolute need for drastic cuts in carbon emissions to slow down the rate of global warming and give Pacific nations a fighting chance.

But tonight, I want to emphasise those things over which we do have control – the many principles that are contained in this Framework document. And the blueprint it provides us with as we move forward together to achieve our vision of building a modern and prosperous nation- state standing tall and proud in the Pacific and tall and proud in the world.

A nation that has embraced best practice when it comes to the sustainable development of our resources. A nation that practices what it preaches. A nation that has a sacred pact with unborn Fijians to leave them with surroundings in the same pristine state they were when they were bequeathed to us.

I encourage every Fijian to read this document because I repeat: the struggle for sustainable development is a struggle that can only be won with a unified national response – every Fijian playing their role no matter who they are, where they come from in Fiji or how old they are.

I told the Nation’s schoolchildren this morning when I launched National Environment Week that I wanted every Fijian child to become a warrior for the environment. To take personal

Page | 3 responsibility - even at a young age - to protect their immediate surroundings and encourage others around them to do the same.

I am convinced if every Fijian young person can grow up seeing themselves as personal custodians of their surroundings, nothing is impossible in ensuring that our national development is sustainable and our resources are protected for all time.

With this document, I want to fire the imagination of every Fijian about what we can achieve working together, especially to address the ten major themes at the heart of our quest for a green- blue economy:

To build resilience to climate change and disaster; to manage our waste properly; to keep our island and ocean resources sustainable; to insist on inclusive social development; to ensure our food security; to adequately manage our freshwater resources and sanitation; to guarantee our energy security and develop alternative energy sources; to have sustainable means of transportation; to embrace technology and innovation; and achieve the “greening” of our tourism and manufacturing industries – placing sustainable development at the core of these major planks of the Fijian economy.

We also want the citizens of the world to know that when they buy “Fijian Made” goods and services, they are doing so from a nation with a national ethos of sustainability at every level.

In the next few weeks, I will be launching the Fijian Trade Policy Framework, a separate blueprint to improve our trade performance and enhance Fiji’s position as a regional trading hub.

This will be another crucial document for our national development. And the Trade Policy Framework will directly complement the Green Growth Framework by setting down a clear pathway to achieve sustainable growth through trade.

We want consumers the world over to know that when they “buy Fijian”, they are buying quality products and services produced by a Pacific Island nation that has placed sustainable development at its core. It is a great marketing tool but we need to back our marketing slogans with a credibility that is unassailable.

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Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, When we talk about “restoring the balance in development that is sustainable for our future”, it is an explicit recognition that much of what has been done in the past has been unsustainable. In far too many instances, our resources have been exploited without regard for the need to nurture them carefully so they continue to provide the prosperity on which we all depend.

We recognise that we cannot persist with a development model and its inherent flaws that are jeopardising the sustainability of our resources. And we recognise that there is a pressing need to address and manage some obvious challenges – population growth, growing urbanisation, the consequent generation of waste, our growing appetite for energy, deficiencies in our infrastructure and the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters due to climate change.

With this document and with the five year and twenty year national development plans that will have its principles at their core, my Government is forging a new development model – one that is more holistic, integrated, inclusive and above all sustainable.

In the transformation we envisage, we see no trade-off between economic prosperity and environmental protection. Indeed we see a future for Fiji in which these two principles are complimentary – where prosperity comes not from short-term economic gain at the risk of resource damage or loss. But derives from the responsible and sustainable use of those resources by extracting maximum value from them. And also adding value to them wherever possible.

A green economy in a blue world in which the driver of growth is more intelligent, more effective and in which the common interests of all Fijians are taken into account, not one section of the economy or a privileged elite.

The entire ethos of my Government is to leave no Fijian behind and to meet the needs and aspirations of everyone. So our vision for national development is, above all, an inclusive one – to forge a national consensus that the best way for Fiji to move forward is to ensure that no project gets the green light unless it passes the sustainability test and is in the interest of all Fijians.

Page | 5 As I pointed out at ESCAP, some of this commitment comes at considerable cost. I used the example of the Namosi gold and copper project outside Suva, which is currently on hold because we have yet to be satisfied that the necessary environmental protections can be met.

The revenue from this mine could make Fiji wealthier, ease our budgetary constraints and provide our people with a range of extra services. But Fiji is not a nation where development comes at any price. This nation cannot be bought. And we insist that the preservation of our environment must always come first.

We have seen what has happened in other parts of the Asia- Pacific when greed and the abandonment of proper process has caused long-term environmental harm. And I know I speak for every Fijian when I say we will never, ever, make the same mistake.

Achieving a Green Growth economy sometimes requires sacrifices and we are willing to make them. In the sure knowledge that the true wealth of a nation will always be judged on the protection of its resources, their sustainable use and the wealth of the natural legacy we leave to our children and grandchildren.

Excellencies. Ladies and Gentlemen, Everyone who has had a hand in the formulation of this document can be very proud of the blueprint you have left for us all to follow. This includes those who attended our first national Green Growth Summit last year and our development partners who have so readily assisted with this important national initiative.

I want to thank you all on behalf of the Fijian people for your commitment and hard work. And as Prime Minister, call on the entire nation to move forward and put the principles we have enunciated into practice. To make Fiji a shining example of best practice in sustainable development. Truly a Green Growth economy in a blue world. An inspiration to our Pacific neighbours and a nation worthy of respect in the eyes of any citizen of the world who values the protection of the planet we all call our home.

I now have great pleasure in launching Fiji’s Green Growth Framework document.

Page | 6 Vinaka Vakalevu, Thank You.

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