Transcript
WINSTON PETERS: Well it's the first time that it's been in PNG in the twenty-nine years of APEC's existence. And only the fourth time will this be the case of there being an APEC meeting in our part of the Pacific, so to speak. So in that sense it's a great chance for them to showcase the enormous resources that they potentially have in terms of social and economic development. But also it is a country with some significant in-built problems, such as language differences - there's over (800) different languages in PNG, and you can see the difficulties that would bring about.
JOHNNY BLADES: Yeah, it's remarkable in a sense that they've been able to hold it together as a nation since 1975...
WP: Well it can't be easy. And i think everybody who goes there recognises that. And there are huge gaps in terms of modernity, as opposed to some of the villages and settlements all around PNG. But they've got the prospect of serious improvement, and they're optimistic, and we've got to do our best to help.
JB: New Zealand's giving about 15 million (NZ dollars) in terms of the assistance to PNG for this APEC summit, is that right?
WP: Well, to enable PNG to pull this APEC hosting role off, yes we are giving them 15 million, but it's a serious investment in helping them to better advertise who they are and what they are and how they can be of functional assistance to all of APE,C and that's what is so important.
JB: At the moment in PNG there are struggles with health and education services around the country, so many people over there are asking 'can we afford to host APEC?'. What do you think?
WP: Well if it's a this or that, then the answer will always be 'do that'. However the functionality of economies is such that if you can buy this sort of hosting role, improve your economic prospects, then you're better able to pay for all the other things which are on the demands of the government's plate, so to speak. You can always raise the question of why don't you spend it somewhere else. And if you go down that path, you'll have no progress whatsoever. In fact you'll sink into serious recession against the progress of other countries.
JB: How does it work when you host an APEC summit, how do the opportunities arise?
WP: Well, APEC has come a long, long way from where it was twenty-nine years ago. It's far more than a talk-shop. It's nothing like that anymore. it's become a very, very important institution, and because it has a way of conducting its meetings and its negotiations, tings are talked about in an APEC setting which frequently aren't talked about in other settings. And that's to the advantage in terms of, you know, the trade wars between say China and the United States that are clearly out there now. It's a chance to address those in that sort of environment. And PNG, it's the smallest of all the APEC economies. But here they are after twenty-nine years being the host, and knowing how important PNG is to our future, indeed Australia's future as well, it's the wise thing to do.
JB: Why is it important to our future?
WP: Well it's part of what we call this Blue Continent. And the Blue Continent is this huge area of the world's surface containing a whole lot of island nations. And we can ignore them and neglect them, and one day we'll turn around and find that our neighbourhood is not anything like what we thought it would be. And it'll be because we haven't done our job properly in this part of the world.