ANZ Country Head Saud Minam made this comment yesterday during the launch of the 2017 IMF Economic Outlook.

“The Pacific itself has its own identity and has 18-20 nations so when we talk about sovereignty, it talks about culture, religion, values. It may be a little bit the same but they are different,” said Mr Minam.

He believes the small countries do not make up close to the rounding number of economies in the world today.

“Whenever you put Asia-Pacific, the focus goes to Asia and there is less discussion on the Pacific,” said Mr Minam.

Asian Development Bank regional director Robert Jauncey and International Monetary Fund resident representative Tubagus Feridhanusetyawan agreed with Mr Minam.

The ADB will have its Annual General Meeting in Fiji in 2019 for the first time.

Mr Jauncey said: “This is an opportunity to try and get a better understanding of the Pacific in and I think we are very keen to use that opportunity to drive though further policy changes inside the institution in the next couple of years to make sure we can even better recognize the Pacific Island Countries.”