Mr. Chairman,
Mr. President
Distinguished Governors
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is an honour for me to bring to you all warm greetings from the President, Government and the people of the Republic of Kiribati on whose behalf I am privileged to address this Governing Council this morning.

Attending the Governing Council of IFAD is seen by my Government and people of Kiribati as a crucial responsibility and duty.  This is why we all made the commitments to travel more than ten thousand miles from the low-lying atolls of Kiribati in the central Pacific to this beautiful and historic city of Rome.  For this, I deeply thank you Mr. President for the kind invitation you have extended to my Government.  I also express my thanks to all arrangement and the Government of Italy for the warm and cordial hospitality accorded to me and my delegation on our arrival.

Allow me, Mr. Chairman, to offer my congratulations to you and members of the Bureau on your election to preside over the 31st Session of the Governing Council of IFAD.

I am confident that under your able stewardship this Session will successfully deliver constructive and productive outcomes that will benefit IFAD’s membership.

Mr. Chairman,

Kiribati values its membership in the IFAD as the international facility to assist member states’ efforts to reduce rural poverty in their countries.  For this noble objective, we are committed to contribute in our own small way towards the implementation of IFAD’s mandate and in the delivery of its activities in our region and country.  For the current 7th Replenishment period I am pleased to announce that Kiribati will voluntarily contribute to the 2007-2009 programme funding.

Mr. Chairman,

My Government, with its scarce resources, is also trying to cope with the reality of poverty, which in our context is further exacerbated by unfortunate natural factors of remoteness of our islands, porous and salty conditions of sandy soil and our extremely high vulnerability to adverse effects of Climate Change.

While mentioning Climate Change, I should reiterate that being a low lying atoll nation, Kiribati with its thirty three islands is with no doubt, in the way of the full thrust of global warming and sea level rise. 

Our ground water supply - crucial for our survival and survival of our agricultural sector, is steadily affected and thus burdening our efforts in enabling and equipping our rural poor communities.

I am confident that IFAD also has sincerity and capability to also address the plight of the   rural communities that are now caught up in negative effects of global warming.

Mr. Chairman,

We are grateful for the assistance that Kiribati has received from IFAD since joining. Please allow me to mention specific programmes.

We thank IFAD for implementing the worthwhile programme of Building Capacities on Certification of Organic Agriculture in our Pacific region.  This programme suits Kiribati well by virtue of the fact that nearly all of our traditional fruit trees and vegetables are organically grown and naturally accustomed to our harsh environment. 

Our farmers would like to see this programme further progressed as we are now ready to commercially process some of our uniquely nutritious fruits such as Pandanus.  This is the fruit well endowed with Vitamin A , a very vitamin so deficient in our diets and thus becomes root causes of Non-Communicable diseases.  We see the organic programme as paving a better future for our rural farmers.

Also we acknowledge with appreciation the smooth implementation of the Mainstreaming of Rural Development Initiative (MORDI), which also targets our unemployed people mainly women and young people.
Before my departure, I was informed that a new Agriculture Centre of Excellence to be jointly operated by my Government and the Secretariat of the Pacific Communities (SPC) is to be set up in Kiribati sometime this year.  This is in deed good news to us as the centre will further enhance the efforts of Government and its Regional and NGO partners in helping local farmers to engage in agricultural activities that will bring forth better opportunities in terms of harvesting nutritive crops and marketing them locally and abroad. 

We have trust that with its wealth of experience and knowledge, IFAD, through its renowned implementing partners and through this Center of Excellence, can play a critical role in our efforts to improve the livelihood of our rural poor people in the scattered islands of Kiribati. 

The centre will also enhance positive impacts of current projects like Development of Sustainable Agriculture in the Pacific kindly sponsored by EU through SPC and the Food Security project kindly funded by the Italian Government and implemented by the UN-FAO. 

We are very optimistic that the assistance will be utilized to its fullest and our farmers will be greatly blessed from its services.

Mr. Chairman,

Finally but not the least, I would like to state our high salutes to Mr. President, the management team and all staff of IFAD for the good performance they have achieved in 2007.  I thank and congratulate you all and wish you all the best in 2008 as we all move forward together and collectively to address the challenges facing our rural people.   

Allow me to close by conveying to you all our traditional blessings of Te Mauri(health), Te Raoi (peace) ao Te Tabomoa (and prosperity).  I thank you for your attention.