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Dr. Transform Aqorau, the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency Deputy Director General, is leaving the agency after serving out his first 3 year contract in the position.  Speaking with Lifhaus, Dr. Aqorau confirmed that he is leaving the agency to join the secretariat of the PNA, the Parties to the Nauru Agreement.  "I did not resign my position at FFA, I simply turned down their offer of a second term to take up my appointment with the PNA secretariat."

Dr. Aqorau was the very first Pacific Islander to be Legal Council at the agency and then became the very first Pacific Islander appointed to the position of Deputy Director General, a position which until then had always been held by non-pacific islanders.  "One of my personal ambitions was to show not only Solomon Islanders but other pacific islanders too that we can do it.  My move to the PNA secretariat is also a testament of that vision, the dream to champion a new approach to taking the fisheries industry forward."  Dr. Aqorau is pleased that his successor as Legal Counsel is a Tongan national while one of the two interim Deputy Director General will be a Pacific Islander.

"The PNA is a collection of 8 Pacific Islands that control the largest stock of the world's tuna.  Our vision is to ensure that the members of PNA derive greater financial benefits from this resource so PNA's approach is not only revolutionary, it also has a very strong commercial focus."  Members of PNA are the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.  He was also quick to draw the comparision between PNA and the OPEC group which control the global oil prices.  "I prepared the concept paper and the members of PNA have adopted it and we are now moving forward with this vision."

Admittedly, the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency acknowledges the growing influence of the PNA member countries and a lot of the agency's latest policies have been influenced by the PNA.  Dr. Aqorau has outlined a strong vision for PNA and emphasizing that "we hope to be in the forefront of advancement in the fishing industry.  We would like to see a state of the art monitoring system that allows us to follow every boat in real time as information such as this will help us to make well informed business decisions."  He also emphasized that FFA will remain an integral part of PNA's operations "Our roles are actually complementary, we will focus on the business aspect of managing our tuna resources and FFA will continue to do what it has always done, provide operational services as well as continue with the great job it is doing now in creating policies that help us to effectively manage our tuna stock."

When questioned on his future plans, Dr. Aqorau expressed that he has his ambitions in check and a definite plan for the future.  "However, my priority now is to ensure that the PNA is firmly established and member states benefit from PNA's collective efforts."