HOLD FOR WEEK OF JULY 1"
The sixth annual Forum Economic Ministers Meeting, FEMM, gets underway in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila this week.
Finance Ministers from the region will attend a two day meeting which will focus on among other things progress towards economic reforms and sustainable development in the region.
However, the Forum Secretariat's Economic Advisor Emma Ferguson, says there will be indepth discussion on two important issues.
"One of them ius a stocktake of how the implementation of all the decisions that ministers have made over the last five years at the annual FEMM meetings have gone. And the other issue that they'll be looking at at is the development of better relationships and partnerships between the public and private sectors in Forum island countries. So those two issues are really going to be a core feature of this year's meeting.
Ms Ferguson says other priority areas included the region's economic outlook, international tax, intellectual property rights and catastrophe insurance.