[As Prepared]

[Greetings]

It is my first time visiting your beautiful country, and I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation for the warm welcome. It is unfortunate that I am only spending a short time here for this trip but I do look forward to returning soon and being able see the country’s natural beauty and experience more of the warmth and hospitality of the Fijian people.

I am pleased to join you all today to present the completion certificates to the participants of the Project Management course delivered by the United States Agency for International Development, more commonly known as USAID. This course is designed to enhance the capacity of Fiji’s leaders to design and implement programs that strengthen the country’s resilience against extreme weather events and natural disasters.

I am truly honored to be among this group of individuals who have shown their commitment for their country’s sustainable and long-term development. The U.S. government is proud to stand by you shoulder-to-shoulder as you progress along your development journey.

The U.S. government considers our Pacific neighbors to be important partners in fostering a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The United States and Fiji share a longstanding relationship; a friendship that is based on trust and mutual interests, with our long history of defense partnerships, commercial links, and people-to- people ties. This Project Management course builds upon our strong ties as we together promote a prosperous and stable future for the people of this country.

When we launched the Ready project in 2016, we set out to work with Pacific Island countries to increase their access to international sources of financing. These international funds will help countries to plan and implement activities that will help them become more environmentally and disaster resilient, so they can better protect the lives and livelihoods of their people.

In our consultations with partner countries, including Fiji, government leaders and other stakeholders identified project management capacity as an area that requires improvement to ensure the effective implementation of projects, as well as promote sound management of resources.

In recognition of these urgent needs, USAID worked with the University of the South Pacific to design a course that would build greater cooperation, as well as generate new ideas, practical tools, and techniques to help Fijian leaders access and manage international adaptation funds.

This is now the ninth training that we have conducted in the Pacific Islands region. To date, USAID has been honored to strengthen the capacity of more than 800 government and nongovernmental partners from 10 Pacific Island countries to develop effective adaptation projects to boost their country’s resilience.

In addition to these capacity building activities, USAID has already helped mobilize more than $26 million from various institutions, such as the Adaptation Fund and the Global Environment Facility to support activities to boost the country’s resilience.

Our hope is that in the future, local private sector and civil society, working side by side with the government, will be able to take the lead in managing current and upcoming investments to help achieve our shared goal of a more prosperous and resilient future for the people of Fiji.

To our graduates, I look forward to hearing about your successes as you take the lead in designing and managing activities that will contribute to a more prosperous and resilient future for the people of Fiji.

I would also like to thank the Government of Fiji for its cooperation and collaboration with USAID, and the University of the South Pacific for delivering the course. The U.S. government remains committed to pursue our continued collaboration as we work together in building a more resilient and sustainable Pacific Region.