Editor: The stenographer, Sue, has such as advantage. Her little machine is compact and does not require tethering to the global power network. No need to find that ever wavering sinusoidal one hundred and ten volt alternating current. No need for a cuprium lease. She can sit up front in the unpowered middle of the sports center. The real breakthrough is not wireless connectivity, the real breakthrough will be true wireless power. With only a scant two hours of batteries in this luggable but not truly portable computer, I am forced to seek electrical solace in the corners of the complex. While top end subcompact computers are touting four and five hour battery lives, a conferee needs a ten hour battery life from eight in the morning to six in the evening.
President Urusemal arrives at 8:56, followed by Chief Justice Amaraich. Vice President Killion greets the President. The floor fan is off, the President plugs it in, with a caution from the Vice President to not get shocked while doing so.
Chief Justice George to open with morning prayer. Lou Pangelinan, Secretary General of Pacific Community, formerly SPC (South Pacific Commission) and Senator Camacho from Guam, are recognized. Private sector is called to come forward. Private, public, and infrastructure will be this morning. Lt. Gov. Yakana and Peter Aten, if you could come forward.
Redley: As Aten is not here yet, then Lieutenant can go forward. Oh, OK. Then can I ask Aren Palik and Smensin James to come forward.
Aren: Does everyone have a copy of the public sector report? Can the members come forward. Dave? Before we drafted our public sector matrix we took time to reflect over the first 17 years of the compact. We discussed and considered the three growth scenarios. The committee recommended the high growth scenario, we took the position that baseline and dismal scenario were unacceptable. Four crucial realities: the financing cap from step down of 800 thousand per year. The second is pursuit of 20% reduction of capacity building grant. Third possible reduction of compact inflows as a result of partial indexation of inflation. Fourth: Government and public is 42% of gross domestic product. While fisheries, tourism, agriculture is only 5%. Plus strong liquidity in local banks with only 22% in loans. Government is in low debt position at 13% of GDP.
First the public sector is too big. One cliché that we use is a turtle lying on its back. Government is on its back, private sector on top, and we do not move forward. It should be the other way around, private sector must be on the bottom moving the economy forward.
We must also make sacrifices to reach objectives.
If we pursue high growth scenario then funding is insufficient. We must reform and raise taxes, we must borrow. We are trying to set an objective for a nation over the next twenty years. To achieve growth all sectors must work in harmony.
Committee developed document before you. Activities and outputs are blank. This sector start off with no draft, not even a copy of the last economic summit. We start off on the mission statement. We argue over the mission statement, this noun, that adverb.
[Editor: Odd that the sector that has received so much of compact I monies is the sector with no pre-existing economic plan, with no matrix, and is only now, after 17 years at the compact trough, defining their mission, goals, outcomes, activities, and outputs.
Aren reads from the proposed matrix, minus any activities and outputs. Covering goals under strategic goal one. Budgets guided by policies and projected revenues, government spending supports growing the private sector, tax reform, and ensure that any borrowing is prudent and supports economic growth and not government operations.
Goal two concerns accountability and transparency, effective government and financial systems.
Third goal, improved public sector management. Five goals thereunder. Unified performance reporting system, eliminate government competition in private sector, encourage career development of government employees. Improve and enforce regulatory mechanism to monitor public enterprises and state granted monopolies. They should not be out to maximize profit but to provide a service to the citizens.
Fourth, an effective judiciary. We want to eliminate corruption, not reduce corruption. Also eliminate unethical conduct.
That is the matrix we developed. We felt activities are very specific, state and national government must have input. There is one outstanding issue we discussed and that is with respect to capacity building grant. The 20% reduction and eventual phase out will have a profound effect on the government. Every effort should be made to maintain this fund over the next twenty years.
Question:
Lam: Perspective of Pohnpei. Fiscal responsibility. Committee recommends fiscal responsibility, keep the level of public sector. How do you reconcile with calls for more manpower by all sectors – national laboratory this, national research that, more nurses, more health workers, etc.
Aren: We will not be able to satisfy all of our needs, we will have to prioritize. Politicians must make the choices. We need to invest in health and education. But we must develop our economy. The decisions made must be consistent with the goals of economic growth. We will not achieve all goals, but as we go forward those who make decisions must make sacrifices. There may have to be sacrifices in health and education to attain specific economic goals. Maybe we can be more efficient. There are efficiency issues, priority issues, and tough decisions to be made.
Chief Justice George: Message is clear, how do we best manage our resources? We need to be very very cost effective. How do we effectively use the resources we have? If we manage it well but still not have enough resources to go around, then we to make those hard decisions. Adjust expenditures. Come up with creative way to replace lost revenues.
??: The size of the government should be reduced so private sector can help. I fail to see any calls in the matrix for government size reduction.
Aren searches the matrix. Now Smensin searches the matrix. Maybe no one thought of that.
Aren: While not specifically in the matrix, if you talk about a cost effective, efficient, transparent government, all speak to this. How to we effectively resize the government? Each state, the national, will have to look at this. It is up to each government to implement these activities.
??: Strategy goal one, roman number II. Declining share of government in the economy. We want to see the share of the government in the economy reduced.
?: I think it should be clear under technical views. If we hold government at constant level while private sector is growing, then government is effectively reduced.
Dave?: There are a number of ways to reduce the size of government. There are a number of government jobs which can be handled by the private sector. Registration of land, etc. Given the disparity in salaries, we could save money by contracting out. Most large companies have job performance evaluations, and annual view we could use to improve employees efficiency.
John Mangefel: I apologize once again. This is sensitive and probably danger as well. I want to talk about raise the tax. EMPAT, first thing they said is we do not pay enough tax. Or we pay little tax. In first summit we said the same. In the second summit we said the same. In third we are saying the same. Probably in the fourth we will say raise the tax. When is the Congress of Micronesia going to raise taxes?
Alik: We are thinking of that and we are waiting for tax reform being undertaken by the executive branch.
Dorothy?: I am a business woman. I have sleepless nights. I work very hard. I do not want to pay more taxes. We must first reduce government spending. Why are my taxes going to representation funds? They are here to serve us.
Aren: We must be careful and promote business. Before we impost taxes, we must demonstrate why a tax increase is necessary. We have taxation and expenditure. We know what are monies are used for, in imposing a tax we must decide what the additional revenue is to be used for.
Chief Justice Amaraich: I hope that the comments are important. First I appreciate reference to strengthening judicial system. We need to improve that sector to support growth. First, is the efficiency of the courts as they relate to the private sector. We need certificates of title to land. To get loans faster, you need to present title as security. Then certificates are issued by land courts or land commissions, there is a need to strengthen land courts and land commissions to move those processes along. We have cases where there are disputes because parties cannot prove title to their land. Processes must be expedited. Banks have problems due to title. Second, is reference to small claims courts. I appreciate that. A small claims court in each state is referred to. Any case involving bank loan collection has to go to the national court because most banks are foreign banks and have foreign investment and that lies at the national level. Thus the national court must be trained to handle these case. Third, better if private sector and government could come to agreement as to what jobs can be privatized. Courts cannot be privatized. I am sorry the courts at the national level do not seem items that can be privatized. Government has responsibility to support courts. Courts cannot be privatized. The alternative is to train the courts. Some small things can be privatized, not the courts. Fourth, what things can be eliminated and how do you transition those jobs that are privatized in a smooth way? There needs to be a clear, careful transition. We need to focus on this. Fifth, I think we agree that some government functions may be absorbable by the private sector. But you cannot eliminate all government responsibilities. As we grow, government will likely increase. There are functions that we just have to keep. I think my point is we need to keep the work force functioning, happy, and productive. I have not heard anything that would do this. We could produce more. But there must be incentive for people to stay in the work force. When there is no money we cut their hours. When there is no money, we do not give them pay raise. We give them no incentive. I know, I am one of them. No incentive to work better, harder. We need workforce to do more, to encourage them, give them incentives. Private and public must work together. Not to forget our people, do not forget the human resource. We talk fisheries, environment, do not forget that people are resource and they are victimized.
Aren: We should train employees, reward them, they are important. The titles issues is really an activity and we did not get to those, those lie at the state and national level. It is sad we have to address the need for a small claims court. In the last two banking meetings the banks requested a small claims court. The banks will spend 5000 to collect 500. We need a court that handles cases less than 1000. When will Congress act to establish a small claims court? [The lack discourages small scale short term loans] We need to train. We must provide a mechanism to train people, to prepare people for the transition to a private sector position from their public sector position.
Eliuel: We have discussed this subject quite some times. We all know FSM is a developing country. We need assistance. Sometimes it worries me when we talk about self reliance. Sounds like we do not need assistance. We are still developing, we need assistance. Health and education do not generate revenue, and yet they need to be there for the future of the nation. Efficiency is important. In order to account our expenditure, our money properly, we need a fiscal officer in all departments large enough to accommodate one person so they can track expenditures. [Ed: CPAs and MPAs, masters of public administration are needed]
Podis: I want to return to reducing government. Many of us are from government, we know this did not happen. We reduced government and private sector did not respond. Instead, say, strengthen the government. Shed the public corporations and strengthen government. Government should be limited to its proper role and not get involved in other things. This will strengthen government.
Senator Walter: I believe in taxes. When I add separate tax on invoices. I have this issue and it is not settled [Ed: I did not understand the issue]. Government prefers to buy from outside. Yes, my prices are higher, I pay freight and taxes. Taxes the foreign supplier does not pay.
Willy: Mission statement and some rewording. We already have a public sector so we do not have to "develop" one. We also need to include non-state actors, not just the private sector. Non-state actors, we have brought in half million per year into NGOs in the environment, you cannot ignore that. That must be calculated into growth. The non-states actors are at least 2 million a year per state. Significant. I am really sad to say we were given several scenarios and we opted with a fast growth scenario. Why not a steady growth scenario. We would be changing some areas 100%. Why not a fitting scenario, a steady growth scenario. Is is the American dream we are looking for? Are we setting the bar too high? We need to act like a nation and act as a partner of the US. We are treated like and act like a project of the United States.
Aren: For lack of term, the word high growth is just a term. We are satisfied with the status quo. Current situation is not acceptable. The term is just a term. We are going to make resource allocation issues. A lot of work has to be done. A group of technical people would be put together to fine tune this scenario. It could be midway we make course changes. We need to be careful with terms. We are not satisfied with the current situation. We all know we need to devise an alternative. If we sit back and are satisfied with the compact funding only, I think we will not be satisfied at the end of 20 years.
Redley: Intent in taking high growth is to generate jobs.
[Ed: Tourism plans for a world park will collide with economic development aspirations of political leaders?]
Public sector adopted.
[Does a sector ever face the possibility of being rejected?]
Private sector
Jack: It is about time the government started paying attention to the private sector. The changes we made are not yet in the copy passed out. More than half came from the private sector. Both private and public sectors participants came from a wide background. Verify lively discussion. Overall we agreed that the three major constraints to development are transportation, transportation, and transportation. Time, distance, and cost. Accessibility, cost, and timeliness of transportation have to temper our expectations of growth. The private sector wants FULL CONSULTATION on all matters of economic growth planning by the government. The group reviewed the matrix and also adopted an attitude of restraint. We opted not to repeat the obvious. We did not put in specific percentages, dates, and figures. These will be monitored through performance based budget annual reports. We opted for more general principles. We chose not to include government planning in other sectors.
We chose to opt for open studies of future options. As an example. We want a wide distribution of papers from all four states on all the taxation options. These studies of taxation options should be done only after full consultation with the private sector. NGOs and international organizations, in the generic, were replacements in the grid for specifically mentioned organizations in the matrix grid. We exercised restraint, which is not in front of you, while many outputs are there for government. But those areas are not necessarily barriers to growth. Land reform is not necessarily an issue. Government always says it is.
Power off
Tony Mix: Perfect, that is why we need the private sector.
Land problems can be solved. Land reforms can be handled. Programs can reform rules should be treated in a way to improve... [hard to hear]
Peter Aten: Our goal is support a growing private sector. Working group has five goals. Reads goals. See matrix (should eventually be posted to http://www.summit.fm/ )
Taxation is a very sensitive issue. Must done in full consultation with private sector. Reads goals. Covers again the three problem areas: transportation, transportation, and transportation.
Power returns, but the microphone system remains down and the noise of the fan and blowers makes the end of Peter's speech inaudible, though it was brief.
A break is called at 10:50. Session will once again lapse across lunch. 10:57 a call to return to seats.
Senator Camacho chats with Lou Pangelinan, who wears her hair down.
Question and answer for private sector.
[I step out to deal with the screen being down. I miss George's first comment. ]
George: Is the subsistence sector to be encouraged along with the export sector?
Yakana: We need to emphasize export.
John Mangefel: Again I apologize to the whole summit. I do know what can be privatized or what cannot be privatized. Many examples in Yap of privatized operations that are 1000% better than when the government ran it. Pohnpei has private clinics and I visited Genesis to have them look at my swollen feet and I thought I might be late to the summit and in two minutes they gave me medicine. That is what I am talking about. Some things, education, maybe cannot be, I do not know, but whatever can be privatized should be privatized.
Joe Habuchmai: I need to make some suggestions on strategic goal five. Insert two words: Provide efficient, environmentally appropriate,...
And implement environmentally appropriate projects should be inserted into activity 5.1 along with efficient and priority based... and in 5.1.3 environmental impacts should be considered in infrastructure.
Kikuo: There are thousands of recruiting agents and they can check and do security, we confirm our off island hiring through these agents. We need to get the best possible person, we will spend some money, but we need to retain an agency to ensure we get the best possible people. Second, visas. I have approached government. Nowadays our people travel to other countries. Sometimes these countries are charged fifty dollars per month on a visa. We have no reciprocal treatment. We should charge those citizens of that nation fifty dollars a month. We have people on medical referral and they pay 50 per month. The US does not charge our people, we should not charge the Americans. But if the country charges, then we should charge.
Yakana: As for visas I am sure we can have Congress enact appropriate legislation for countries that require such of our people.
Alik: We are looking into it and we have agreements with South Pacific countries with whom we waive visa requirements.
Tina: Financial institutions, in terms of the process and loan lending schemes provided through banks in order for people to participate, we need help in application process and issue of collateral. I am speaking of business development and home based small scale business. When we talk about improved livelihood and living standards we talk macro and micro policies, but at the level of the people there is an inability to access funds. Some discussions should consider small small home based industry. Second we have a prepared message on civil society outside of business and government. Creating participation in development and democratic process that is open and inclusive of all people, as we look over here one critical issue is the role of civil society. We hear public private partnership. But when you discuss development you need to consider the land owners who own the land. We need to clarify what roles we should play in the compact II era. Micro and macro economic benefits trickle down by osmosis, but that does not happen anymore. We need to know what roles we will play in nation building. What role for people with special needs and disabilities. For women. We talk of reduction of government services, reduce and outsource, we have to look at government institutional capacity and clarify what role national and state governments will play. Invest in resources, invest in people, that is sustainable development. The civil society, we are your clients. The peoples priorities of needs identified by ADB, I did not see anything to reach these goals. Access to basic social services and access to employment to provide income are in that report. We have transportation needs, participation needs. Who owns this process, who drives it? It should be inclusive, transparent, accountable, the people must be involved. We urge this summit to put words into actions.
Infrastructure
Redley: Susaia and other members?
??: I was told to be brief. Thank you. The status of this document. How it was developed and where it is now. We need to assess infrastructures and determine which areas need improvement. What kind of visions is needed. This committee was established at the eleventh hour of the summit. We looked at the major things that need to be done. It has been submitted by the president to the governors.
[I am reading the document. It appears that the recommendation for a national referral hospital lives on, specifically in a 6 million dollar request for the 2009 to 2013 time frame with funding source other, no location specified, and possibly in a three million allocation in 2019-2023 time frame for Chuuk Hospital. The document is far more detailed than any other sector and has a "wish list" of projects with monetary amounts.]
... Chuuk as modified 2004 has increased from one million to three point seven million for power. This change is in line with Chuuk states priorities in their 04 request. Kosrae requested a building to consolidate FSM offices in Kosrae. Some cost estimates presented were clearly too low. Those are changes we made.
Questions and answers
Nena?: We have heard about transportation improvements needed, I did not see anything that addressed bottlenecks. I see something about Pohnpei, but is it going to be the size of the airport, is all of the funding going to be for Pohnpei and what about the other states?
Susaia?: We worked with the state technical people.
[I wander off to let Willy know that Andy should help lead an effort to shift circumferential road money in Kosrae to airport/port improvement.]
??: In terms of... the IDP is riddled with road paving projects, but the outer islands need boats. The micro class vessels have outlived their usefulness. There is no economic development for the outer islands is there are no vessels to carry goods. My main concern is if there could be inclusion of service vessels.
Senator Primo: Refer to graph FSM infrastructure plans, 748 million in the pie graph, what is the base of the percentage distribution as shown in this graph, specifically the percentages that are allocated to each state. To my surprise, Pohnpei and Yap combine is not even close to percentage allocated to Chuuk. I do not disagree with allocation, but what is the basis.
Susaia?: Allocation for each state are based on the projects submitted by the states. There is no set formula in the compact or fiscal procedures that says Pohnpei gets x percentage. If you alarmed. That 24% for Pohnpei for next years may be so because Pohnpei state has good power, good water. So maybe Pohnpei can allocated less to infrastructure.
Chief Justice Amaraich: I just want to present brief description of our situation, in Kosrae we are sharing office space and court room with Kosrae state government. Kosrae will need the space, we need a court building in Kosrae. In Yap we share with state of Yap, an inherited trust territory building. State is looking into relocating. Jointly or separately used facilities and this requires government funds. In Chuuk we are on a leased property that will expire. Land owners do not want to give up their land. So we must begin now, an urgency to acquire land and design a building. At national level the space is permanent. As we expand into other areas and training we will need additional space. We need space in the law library. The books are in boxes under the stairs. The courts functions require special outfitting of the building, so some functions can be outside under a tree, most have to be done in a room with sophisticated machines.
Governor Jack: We do not support the creation the program management unit on page three. For two reasons. First, the creation of this unit be an unnecessary drain on infrastructure projects. Two, this unit will be an unnecessary layer delaying projects. The unit must review project implementation, how will the personnel in the unit select which project to review first.
Susaia?: Thank you for restating what was stated in the opening about the national budget management unit. I think we still need a national review body due to strict requirements under the new compact. We will be responsible for developing the plan, I guess Pohnpei state is ready.
Redley: It is cheaper to have one here than five units.
??: Is the 900K to operate an office exclusive of the 8% for national:
Susaia?: No, it comes from 5% in each project required by the compact for management.
??: If a state cannot come up with 5% what happens?
Susaia?: Not a question of whether, it is required under the Compact. [5% to manage projects is a compact requirement]
??: Should states be require a 5% contribution to maintenance (management?) fund. If a state could not put in their 5%, could other states use that fund for another project.
Susaia: The 5% is for reporting on the project, when you put in a project you must put in that 5%. You could not submit a project without the 5%.
Joe: We had the co-chair meeting, although not reflected in document, I would hope one of the requests. On executive summary. A wastewater and water supply addition... on page 2 of 29 of executive summary as we pointed out projects dealing with solid waste management are not reflected in there so they are not synchronized with the other sector. Then there are other issues that need to be cleaned up. Goal five, we really appreciate your being sensitive to environmental compliance. If we might request cleaning up and making sure those activities are aligned with environmental sector. We see things that need to be included in there from environmental sector. Do not want to take plenary time to clean these up, but needs to be done at some point.
??: Kosrae has formally adopted... by transmittal from our leadership meeting. And that means we accept the concept. We feel that should work the ... new and expensive requirements, we need a unit to assist us. We cannot continue to draw down funds without a unit.
Susaia?: [too soft]
??: I see we have a lot of shopping list and limited funding. The most important were agriculture, tourism, fisheries. Wide body planes mean airport extension. I think we should look at our shopping list. We should not be selfish. Maybe shrink our shopping list exclusive of education and health, I think the other infrastructure, I think we should put more money into airport. Maybe Pohnpei or Chuuk. With the extension we will have enough income to do the others.
[Editor: The build it and they will come fallacy? Like a Wansmolbag skit, somehow if we build a longer runway we will all be rich. ]
Susaia?: We need a master plan for airports in the FSM. We had a study that determined Pohnpei should be the airport of the FSM and should be improved.
[The price Chuuk pays for not hosting the national government in 1986 continues to mount...]
Eliuel: Dispensaries, hospital, and schools are in operation every year. Many are not in good condition. They need improvement or construction of new building. It should be reflected every year. It should be every year. Up to the states. The purpose of clarifying some money every year for maintenance. There are many years with no funding so no renovating. Some money should be put into maintenance and renovation.
Governor Mangefel: Thank you. The only problem I am having here is in the past the decisions made by national and state government. Where in decision making process are you including community, grass roots level, including the women?
Susaia?: I think there is no set method. I guess our Micronesian way, if this budget includes women, then we make sure they are consulted.
Senator: The allocation over the first five years is unfair. I advise this forum take into consideration all states.
Susaia?: The projects were submitted from the state governments. If your concerned, you as a senator, through the annual budget process, change the priorities of the projects.
??: I apologize if I offend. As Dr. Pretrick pointed out some dispensaries are out of ... I wonder if before compiling this IDP I wonder we can come out with identifying projects through the states. I recommend an inclusion for the rehabilitation of schools and dispensaries, I would request you include new construction of dispensaries and schools.
Susaia?: Each state makes their own submission.
Redley: This is a plan and subject to review from time to time, we see this list as a wish list. We encourage all states to continue talking and review sections of the IDP. We cannot accommodate all of the projects on the wish list, we will to fund urgently needed projects.
Adopted.
Redley: We need to review draft communique. There was a committee assigned this task. Where is the chairman?
[handout]
JacK?: Maybe we could have a form that sets out the nine sectors and key recommendations. Infrastructure and gender have been contentious. The gender matrix was a problem, we asked inclusion of youth, elderly, along with women. I have not seen that matrix. We cannot agree to it without those additions. To be consistent, we need to replace [EPIC with JEMCO..]
Redley: Of course those comments were included, I may be wrong, but I think the gender report was adopted contrary to what you indicated.
Senator Primo?: I find it hard to take, I refer to page three, that the summit has endorsed the IDP as amended. I have not seen the amendment. In the fourth paragraph, infrastructure was major area to be addressed. It was not given a chance to be reviewed, it was a special committee. It says we endorse the IDP. And that is a problem. Endorsed as amended. I have not learned what is being amended in the IDP. I would assume if we adopt this communique, then we are endorsing the infrastructure matrix. I would suggest we remove infrastructure and send it back to the states.
Redley: Can you Mr. Secretary further elaborate?
Secretary: I understand, but we need to be fair to the other states. I know in Pohnpei we are still debating the IDP. Until we provide an IDP, we embark this money. The money that should be coming has started, and we are at tail end of 04 and we have not accessed infrastructure money. If Pohnpei still believes their priorities are not in order, then do it through your annual budget process, you can amend your own budget, you can take a project out, that is your legislative mandate.
Redley: Maybe we can note that Pohnpei is still sorting out their priorities but still endorse the IDP. Maybe we can encourage the state governments to work together.
John Mangefel: ... inaudible.
Redley: We cannot adjourn without communique.
John: We will include those amendments I still maintain that I move for adjournment.
Redley: I exercise my power as chair, please take a chair. This is the only time I disagree with my good friend.
Speaker Perman: The advice given by Primo, the advice is that we can change the IDP. Can we fund a project that is not in the IDP.
Susaia?: The IDP can be changed annually: that is the specific projects can be changes. Yes, states can change it. Amend your budget law. You want to do it tomorrow.
Perman: What if the project is not listed. Would JEMCO fund that? "The SDP will be submitted to Congress for final approval." Why are the states not involved?
Ambassador: Perhaps an appropriate moment to discuss JEMCO, although I am not on it. Their view is that there should be a national development plan and that should be reflected in budgets sent to JEMCO. Once JEMCO sees the alignment, they will approve. If a project is not on the list, then it would be hard for the JEMCO to believe the project was a priority. I think it would be very hard for JEMCO to accept that once they have approved a particular project, that money was changed to another project. That would be a problem.
George: Prioritization of IDP: It goes through JEMCO before coming back for final approval. For some reason if in Chuuk the budget does not agree with JEMCO, then they will have to resubmit modifications to JEMCO.
Governor Walter: I really try my best not to talk. All due respect, I think .. we know the message from the United States. We can use locally generated funds. The message from the ambassador is clear. I hope we can accept the realities. If we want to achieve economic growth, we must pay the political price that is painful. I move we adopt this communique.
Redley: Thank you.
Emelio: Fourth paragraph first sentence after amended following a discussion of the summit and plenary sessions each state will have an opportunity to review the IDP through the annual budget process.
Redley: Are you OK, Senator Primo?
Speaker Perman: Why are the states not being included in the final process of approval of the SDP?
Redley: We lack the secretary of economic affairs. Susaia?
Susaia: I think it is a political decision that has to be made, maybe in EPIC. IN the past, previous summit documents received only the blessing of the FSM Congress. That seemed to be sufficient.
Redley: There is nothing wrong with blessing SDP by state governments. We need the SDP to verify our actions over the next twenty years. Of course it would be bad if you pass a different resolution on the SDP.
Andon: I look at the physical procedure agreement page 15 which talk about IDP and it says that annual implementation plan shall include integrated state and national priorities. Not only national but state. State and national priorities. It continues by saying this project and any revision shall be submitted to the government of the United States. Not sure why that statement is there. What kind of revision I do not know. I want to read it from the physical procedure agreement.
Redley: If we are ready to adopt this communique.
??: The gender committee went back and redid their matrix to be an inclusive policy. We would propose that it go into the communique.
??: After first sentence top paragraph, the gender committee modified its policy matrix that is be inclusive of women, [senior citizens], youth, [disabled].
James: Is there a time frame for a ratification process. Is this document going to each state legislation. Will this hold up budgets? Would state legislatures want to matrix changes?
Evelyn: A strategic plan in the amended plan is required to be submitted within 90 days of ratification of the compact. It will be 90 days after ratification.
Redley: So it will be urgent. The ratification could be any day now.
Governor Yap: I try my best not to talk all this time, actions speak louder than words. But at this point I would like to, I have a minor concern. I know amendments were made by other sectors. We are trying to include amendments in our reports. This might be an oversight, the FSM national government was omitted as participating at this summit.
Redley: This communique is more or less a summary statement. If no objection, the draft communique is hereby adopted. That concludes reports and are ready for the closing ceremony.
[Closing ceremony]
I miss the opening and a number of statements during brief lunch break to refuel my fingers. Yap state is giving a closing statement. Wherein the closing statements are exhortations to carry out the plan, or are thanks, or praises, I am omitting such text. In the industry we call this "boilerplate."
Hillary (Yap): "I think our paper is a very satisfactory one."" - In reference the IDP.
President Urusemal: Pays respect to leaders. And everyone else.
[The summit floor is nearly empty compared to week's start. ]
Some will leave satisfied, some will leave frustrated, some will leave not sure if they are satisfied or frustrated. Let us support the consensus. We have also chosen a high growth strategy. We know we cannot implement without reforms. We must make a concerted effort across all sectors. Time will come when we will hesitate and even second guess our commitment. This week we are clear. We do not want to end up with dismal results. We are not happy to settle for baseline with high rate of out migration. We want to do better.
Thus we made our commitment to a more optimistic future. For those of us who face elections from time to time, we will need to keep our focus on our commitments. Our collective courage and commitment to action will be enhanced by a common sense of purpose. We have clear and unambiguous agreement to pursue a high growth strategy. We have indicated that environmental and cultural protections must be integrated into our strategy. We are not facing a crisis, we must pursue an integrated approach. We are not facing a fiscal crisis, only decreasing financial flows.
If we fail to respond to new fiscal realities, we will fail to respond to national needs.
Our outreach efforts need to take advantage of the momentum we gained this week. I commit myself and my administration to support private sector and NGOs. We will due our utmost to turn our theme of our summit from a dream to a reality.
[Giving thanks to various people, JCN. Notes that the package provided by US is sufficient for high growth strategy. ]
Signing ceremony.
Vice Speaker Scaliem is called to sign for Pohnpei.
Fernando: Given that the governor and lieutenant on both on the island, I do not see why I should sign. I was asked only to give closing remarks. So if lieutenant governor is still here...
[Interesting: Speaker Perman has apparently walked out, Governor David was here in the morning but I saw him leave in the late morning. Will Pohnpei posthumously claim to have not signed off on the summit papers? Shades of the rejection of the first compact. It would appear that the Lt. Gov. has also left? There will be no Pohnpei signature on the documents? I am uncertain what was done up front. ]
In side discussions I learn the following, all of which should be treated as hearsay.
Although Senator Scaliem said he could not sign, another member of the audience indicated the senator did sign for Pohnpei. I am less certain of this myself. Both the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor are on island, and both were with the summit as session start. Speaker Perman was also obviously present. The departure of all three is tantamount to a de facto walk out on the summit.
I was also informed that Speaker was off-island during the leadership conference. I conjecture, based on nothing at all but a hunch, that there must have been a specific project speaker wanted in the state development plan (SDP) which was not included. Absent from the state leadership meeting, I would further presume that no one submitted that project.
I did ask a source who understands the workings of Compact II and JEMCO and he noted that JEMCO is not concerned with the internal process by which the development plan is generated. JEMCO only looks for a plan to be generated and submitted. Thus the question may arise as to who has authority to submit, but one might conjecture that the President could submit the summit document. He might need the approval of Congress, but I would have to doubt that there is any particular law governing whether Congress needs a simple or super majority. I would guess that there is no law whatsoever – what country could anticipate needing to approve a development plan for submission to a third party?
Either way, it should make for intense and interesting talk around the stone in the nights to come.
All errors are those of the editor!