WELLINGTON (Pacific Scoop / Pacific Media Watch): Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's recently-appointed Minister of Lands, Geology, Mines, Energy and Water, is a self-confessed "notorious critic" of free trade and foreign ownership.
He wants to see Pacific nations become more independent of Australian and New Zealand influence.
"One of my priorities is to reform land law to really enshrine customary tenure over land," Regenvanu recently told Pacific Scoop.
"New Zealand, Australia and the World Bank are saying that we need to get away from that, but I totally disagree. We need to enshrine it so that cultural land-owning groups or land-stewarding groups never lose control of the resource -- because in the Pacific land is our only resource, people and land."
He is also an advocate of Pacific vernacular literacy.
The Pacific Parliamentary and Politics Forum was on 18-22 April 2013.
Vanuatu minister calls for 'enshrining' of custom land
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Michael Sergel
