Shiv Nair meets Kiribati president, reiterates commitment to Blue Ocean Charter

Shiv Shankaran Nair reiterates Suez Holding’s commitment to the Blue Ocean Charter in meeting with Kiribati president

Shiv Nair (left) with Anote Tong, President of Kiribati
Shiv Nair (left) with Anote Tong, President of Kiribati

Shiv Shankaran Nair, executive chairman of Suez Holdings Ltd, has reiterated his group’s commitment for funding and his own time to the success of the Blue Ocean Charter.

Shiv Shankaran Nair stated this in his meeting with Anote Tong, the three-times President of Kiribati, who called upon him at the group’s head office.

Dr Tong is one of the world’s leading campaigners against global warming and climate change and sits on the board of many international organizations combating climate change.

Shiv Shankaran Nair, who was appointed as Vanuatu’s envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Commonwealth, has been instrumental in facilitating the UK-Vanuatu jointly-chaired commission on elimination of plastic waste in the oceans. Subsequently as principle advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vanuatu, he initiated Vanuatu’s membership of the International Coral Action Group, based in Monaco.

Shiv Nair has been negotiating on behalf of the Pacific microstates with European, primarily Spanish fishing companies, on adding value in-country, to the millions of euros worth of tuna netted annually in the Pacific by these companies.

As a result of his public relations experience, a group of Spanish companies have agreed to set up a salt processing plant in Kiribati which will be used by fishing vessels to keep their catch fresh until processing.

Other European fishing companies have started negotiations to hire islanders onto their crew, thus providing training and employment to local people.

As a part of his company’s CSR, Shiv Shankaran Nair’s company provides technical assistance to Anote Tong’s private secretariat and funds an annual bursary to enable him to travel and spread the message of reduction of carbon emissions and minimizing global impact of eliminate change. The group also funds several scholarships to allow Pacific diplomats to attend courses at the University of Oxford.