Archipelagic & Island States (AIS) Forum in Bali, Indonesia |09 December 2022
Delegates in a souvenir photograph
Seychelles attends 4th ministerial and 6th senior officials meetings
The principal secretary for the Blue Economy, Kenneth Racombo, represented the Minister for Fisheries and the Blue Economy, Jean-François Ferrari, at the 4th Ministerial Meeting (MM-4) of the Archipelagic & Island States (AIS) Forum that took place in Nusa, Dua, Bali, Indonesia on December 6, 2022 under the theme ‘Elevating AIS Forum Collaboration for Sustainable and Healthy Oceans”.
The 4th MM was preceded by the 6th Senior Officials Meeting (SOM-6) of the AIS on December 5, 2022. The SOM was attended by the director for Fisheries, Sheriffa Morel.
The AIS Forum, was hosted by the government of Indonesia under the co-chairmanship of the coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan; Minister for Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi; Minister for Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono and the Resident Representative of UNDP, Norimasa Shimomura.
The AIS cooperation focuses on creating an avenue for concrete cooperation and development action that is inclusive of all island and archipelagic states regardless of their location, size, and level of economic development. The forum envisioned to address common challenges and to seize opportunities for shared growth, and focuses on four thematic areas that are consistent with the work being done in Seychelles. These are climate change mitigation and adaptation, and disaster management; the blue economy; marine plastic debris, and good maritime governance.
The outcome of MM-4 was that: collaboration between AIS member countries and international partners are amplified, and to do so US $5 million have been pledged for the next 5 years, to establish regional networks, to assist post-pandemic recovery and boost efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 14; the continuation of the development, identification, and acceleration of the use of innovative and sustainable financial instruments of the blue economy to assist with the “blue” recovery and the development of sustainable management of ocean resources through the advancement of science and technology, evidence-based policies consistent with the precautionary approach principle.
The 4th MM was also a platform to sustain momentum, solidify commitments, and deliver concrete progress as well as usher all AIS Forum participating states toward the shared success of the First High-Level Meeting to be held in 2023 in Indonesia which will see the participation of all heads of State or government of the AIS Forum participating countries.
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