honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 9:12 a.m., Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Interior secretary to visit U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands

Advertiser Staff

 

U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will be traveling next month to the U.S. island territories of Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas, as well as to the Freely Associated States, which include the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

AP library photo | January 2006

spacer spacer
U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne yesterday told leaders of U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands that he will visit several island communities next month.

"I can't begin to tell you how much I'm looking forward to visiting these places that are such an important part of the work of my Department," Kempthorne said in remarks at Pacific Island Night in the National Geographic Society's Explorer's Hall in Washington, D.C.

"I look forward to visiting the schools, the healthcare clinics, the villages, the work places. I look forward to meeting as many people as possible, and getting as full an understanding as I can get of their lives, their concerns, their aspirations."

Kempthorne will be traveling to the U.S. island territories of Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas, as well as to the Freely Associated States, which include the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, according to a news released issued by the Department of the Interior.

Kempthorne also announced that Interior's Office of Insular Affairs will host the fourth Conference on Business Opportunities in the Islands on Guam, Oct. 8-9.

The conferences provide an opportunity for U.S. businesspeople to meet with entrepreneurs and business owners and managers from the U.S.-affiliated islands and explore ways of working together that will strengthen the economies of the islands. Last year's conference was held in Honolulu.

As interior secretary, Kempthorne oversees federal policy in four U.S. territories, three of which are in the Pacific. His department also manages U.S. government assistance to three independent Pacific nations through the Compacts of Free Association. Interior's Office of Insular Affairs carries out these department responsibilities.

Most U.S. financial assistance to the Pacific Islands — more than $300 million a year — comes through the Department of the Interior in the form of grants for schools, hospitals, roads, power plants, environmental protection, law enforcement, financial management, immigration control, worker protection, refugee protection, economic analysis and other purposes.

Pacific Island Night, an annual event held this year in conjunction with the Pacific Island Council of Leaders, is hosted by the embassies of Pacific island nations and the congressional delegations of U.S. island territories in the Pacific. The Department of the Interior is hosting its own festival tomorrow to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and underscore Interior's special role in supporting island communities, according to the news release

For more information on Interior's Office of Insular Affairs, go to www.doi.gov/oia.