A meeting of seabed mining interests will meet in Rarotonga this week to look at financial management and environmental concerns.
60 government officials as well as experts from as far as Sudan and Norway will gather for the first regional event of its kind on managing the potential wealth from the extraction of deep sea minerals.
The Finance Minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown, says his country has put in place legislation regarding their polymetallic modules on the sea floor, and last year introduced taxation measures on potential revenue.
Mr Brown says countries need to make their position clear to outside interests before deals are done on any future mining.
"It's very important for the countries to have you know good financial management systems in place in the anticipation that they will receive additional revenues. It's also very important that the countries, as much as possible, derive revenues along each stage of the value chain."
Mark Brown.
