Sylvester Bartholomew Pokajam
Managing Director, National Fisheries Authority

Mr. Sylvester Bartholomew Pokajam is currently the Managing Director for the National Fisheries Authority in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The National Fisheries Authority (NFA) is a non-commercial statutory authority owned by the government of Papua New Guinea. As a statutory authority, NFA is required to implement government policies for managing and developing fisheries as a national asset.

As the Managing Director of the National Fisheries Authority, Mr. Sylvester B. Pokajam has contributed immensely to the fisheries sector in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific region as a whole. His active involvement and key achievements are vast and include some of the following:

• Strengthening the position of PNG in negotiations at regional and international fisheries conferences;
• Setting up the best Vessel Monitoring System in the region with capacity to manage the Parties to the Nauru Agreement’s (PNA) vessel day scheme;
• Strengthening NFA’s position as the leader in provision of observer services in the Western and Central Pacific region;
• Key architect of the establishment of the new secretariat/office for the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) in Majuro, FSM; and
• Instrumental in PNG’s securing of the EU-Partnership Agreement which sets the basis for PNG to export any fish and fishery products to the EU Market duty free as long as it meets EU safety standards and is processed in PNG.

The contributions by Mr. Pokajam are well recognized within the international community as well as in Papua New Guinea. More importantly he has ensured the continuing success of the NFA as a leading fisheries organization in the region with a state of the art Vessel Monitoring System and one of the largest observer programmes in the world, backed with high quality training and research facilities.

Mr. Pokajam holds degrees from the University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea (Bachelor of Technology in Accountancy) and University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia (Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management).

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