President Tommy Remengesau, Jr and Our Ocean’s 2020 committee attended the Our Ocean’s 2019 conference that took place in Oslo, Norway recently.
Umerang Imetengel, Our Ocean’s 2020 secretariat, explained that one of the objectives of going to this trip is to observe and learn how Norway handled their conference.
Imetengel, who’s been to the Ocean Conference that took place in Bali in 2018, noticed that both countries conducted the event differently.
She mentioned that Bali was a little grander with the way that they handle things such as having a lot of security personnel present and holding a lot of celebrations. While in Norway, she said that they were more simple, yet effective.
So for this coming Ocean Conference at 2020, the committee plans to focus more on the quality rather than the quantity, meaning that they put high priority to those that can provide a solution to the issues to be discussed.
They plan on inviting countries and organizations that can contribute to the following criteria’s of the program which are: ocean pollution, fisheries sustainability, marine protected tours, sustainable blue economy, and climate change.
While they were at Norway, they were approached by potential partners as well as supporters that want to help with the technical and logistical aspects of the event.
The president also mentioned that so far they have received $10,000,000 in pledges from various countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia.
The committee is also working very closely with Belau National Tourism Association to make sure that they can accommodate the guest to the best of their abilities from room vacancies and food availability.
President Remengesau said that “Norway has officially passed the baton on to them for next year’s ocean conference.”