As prepared for delivery
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to this session. Across island States, the ocean is the fisher’s catch, the diver’s reef, the guesthouse owner’s livelihood. Increasingly, it is also the seaweed farm, the offshore wind turbine and the laboratory searching marine life for new medicine.
Before our panel begins, I want to make two points. One on how the ocean economy is changing. And one on how we help islands take part.
I will start with the change.
The rules are changing first. This year, the High Seas Treaty entered into force: the first global treaty to protect marine life on the high seas, which cover nearly two thirds of the ocean. For just over a year, the World Trade Organization’s agreement curbing harmful fisheries subsidies has also been in force. Clearer rules make the ocean economy more predictable, and long-term investment depends on predictability.
The opportunities are changing too. Per person, island States export nearly ten times more ocean goods and services than the global average. Tourism accounts for 87% of those exports. New ocean industries, from offshore energy to aquaculture and marine biotechnology, give islands a chance to build on that strength and spread their risk.
Investment has been slow to follow. Nearly 60% of island States have received fewer than three international public-private partnerships for sustainable infrastructure over the past 25 years. Fishers lack cold storage. Guesthouses struggle to reach visitors.
This brings me to how we are helping.
At this Forum, UN Trade and Development is presenting two new projects.
The first is in São Tomé and Príncipe. With the Government, we are building an ocean economy and trade strategy centred on marine and coastal tourism: how visitors book and pay for local services, how local value chains such as cocoa can sell more to them, and how the islands’ natural assets are protected.
I thank the Government of São Tomé and Príncipe and Ambassador Tiny Cosme Bonfim, as well as Portugal, represented here by Ambassador Mira Gomes, and the United Kingdom for supporting this work.
The second is in Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelagic State. Nearly two thirds of its seaweed exports leave the country raw. Through the UN Global Seaweed Initiative, where UN Trade and Development serves as co-secretariat, and with partners including UNIDO and FAO, we are identifying the policies that would let small and medium-sized firms process more of that seaweed at home, into bioplastics, packaging and fertilizers. What works across more than 17,000 Indonesian islands can travel to the smallest island States.
Turning these strategies into investment will take partners in blended finance, investment promotion, legal structuring and climate finance: expertise many of you bring to this room.
Excellencies,
Island States are often described as small. Measured by the waters they look after, some are very large indeed. The new ocean economy gives investors a reason to see them at that scale and give them the value they are worth.
I thank you.