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Ethnic Communications

Pacific Cooperation Foundation

By Gerald McGhie
Interim director

Just as the Asia 2000 Foundation was needed in the 1990s to enable New Zealand to engage adequately with Asia, so a Pacific Foundation is needed now in respect of our immediate neighbourhood. The Pacific Cooperation Foundation aims to bring together New Zealanders and Pacific peoples in this new venture. The Foundation draws together government, private sector and civil society in a partner­ship to meet new challenges and take advantage of new opportunities in our region.

Cooperation is already under way. In April, New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hon. Phil Goff, announced a grant of $675,000. The private sector – particularly Brother International – has also contributed to the Foundation’s work.

Strengthening the quality of engagement in the region will enhance New Zealanders’ sense of identity as a Pacific nation. That sense of engagement will also bring Pacific Islanders, in a direct way, to a greater sense of their place in the region. The Foundation will, for instance, respond more effectively and with better public understanding to specific needs in our neighbourhood. We also want to help New Zealand businesses engaged in the region to be better informed of political developments and better equipped to deal with the unforeseen.

These objectives will be pursued by programmes and projects in several fields:

Better understanding and the media

There is a need to achieve a better informed New Zealand public on Pacific issues. Likely projects will include support of increased New Zealand media involvement in the region, including more comprehensive reporting from the region and media exchanges between New Zealand and Pacific Island countries.

Annual Pacific Island Lecture

There are also plans to establish an annual high profile Foundation Lecture involving a lecture tour in New Zealand by a carefully selected eminent Pacific Island person.

Business

PCF aims to provide New Zealand businessmen with a good foundation of know­ledge about their environment in the Pacific. Projects will be designed to facilitate this and to improve the ability of New Zealand business interests to secure political support in the countries of the region. Projects will seek to improve cooperation between New Zealand and Pacific Island businesses to the advantage of both.

Education

The Foundation plans to engage with New Zealand universities and academics with Pacific Island interests to identify ways in which the level of academic excellence in New Zealand could be lifted and academic cooperation with Pacific Island countries increased.

Pacific communities and culture

Matching an evident and enthusiastic resource comprising Pacific Island New Zealanders with professional and trade skills, and a desire to re-establish contact with Pacific Island home countries, with identified needs in the region. This will achieve valuable capacity-building in Pacific Island countries by sending out people with the appropriate skills and qualifications.

Cultural linkages

Project applications will also be sought to enable the Foundation to support cultural linkages between New Zealand and its Pacific Island neighbours.

Find out more

Pacific Cooperation Foundation
PO Box 12672
Wellington

Published 3rd qtr, 2003

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