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THE HONOURABLE ACTING MINISTER FOR YOUTH AND SPORTS
MR OSEA NAIQAMU
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Address at the Oceania National Olympic Committees on Friday 30 March 2017 at 17h30
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Dr Mitchell, President - outgoing and possibly incoming – of ONOC
Members of the ONOC Board
Representatives of NOCs from our region
Friends, ladies and gentlemen

Bula vinaka to you all

Welcome to Fiji on behalf of the Minister of Youth and Sports and our Government

It is great for us to be able to host you here and to be able to recognise your contribution to sport in our region.  As you know, our Pacific Islands States can now boast an Olympic Gold Medal and I am delighted that Fiji was able to achieve this.  I hope that our island brothers and sisters will be encouraged by this – it is indeed possible against many odds.

We in Fiji look to sport as an economic tool to bring a different format of tourism to our shores.  We congratulate Samoa on hosting the Commonwealth Youth Games 2 years ago.  It gives us hope that we will attract more Oceania and small world events on our region.  Please consider Fiji for your events – we are generally open for business in this area.

We recognise the power of sport as we saw the unity of our country when we celebrated our win.  But it is not just something that sport must do for just one day or maybe 2 weeks of celebration but something we all need to do – use sport to help create good health, mental stability, nation building and social cohesion.  You all know what I am talking about.  Rest assured that Governments increasingly see the role that sport and physical activity can and should play in society.   In partnership we can achieve a lot.

Vinaka friends and I hope you enjoy this prelude to the Hall of Fame dinner.

Vinaka vakalevu

ENDS