OVERALL OBJECTIVE/PURPOSE: 

The sustainable development of the Pacific ACP economies as an economically integrated region. This should lead to improvements in Gross Domestic Product (GDP)and economic growth of national economies. 

The Programme: 

The PACPS have accepted that integration into the world economy is a vital element in the strategy to achieve sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. They have further accepted that an integrated regional approach is the most effective strategy for engagement in the global economy. Regional economic integration thus becomes an important objective of the region, reflected inter alia in its adoption as a focal area in the 9th EDF Pacific Regional Indicative Programme (RIP) in 2002. 

In pursuing the PACPS chosen strategy, they face the dual responsibility of developing closer economic linkages among themselves, and of coordinating their growing economic linkages with the international economy. The PACPS took the necessary steps by agreeing to first establish the Pacific Islands Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA), providing for free trade in goods as the first step towards a more comprehensive integration that is intended in future to embrace also trade in services and possibly investment. This approach, focusing on integration among the PACPS themselves as the first step towards fuller integration with the global economy, is also consistent with the Cotonou Agreement, which states that economic and trade cooperation shall build on regional integration initiatives of ACP States, bearing in mind that regional integration is a key instrument for the integration of ACP countries into the world economy. 

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