Republic of Nauru Minister for RONPHOS and the Nauru Rehabilitation Corporation (NRC), Reagan Aliklik has revealed his top priorities would be to conduct reviews into both corporations.
Minister Aliklik said the aim of the reviews was to help ensure the corporations played an important role in Nauru’s future prosperity.
In regards to RONPHOS, he said he wanted to make it profitable.
“Ensuring RONPHOS becomes profitable will help ensure the prosperity of the entire nation,” Mr Aliklik said.
“It will assist this Government’s plans and dreams to enhance the standard of living and quality of life of all the people of Nauru.”
Mr Aliklik revealed the Government had last week sent samples of phosphate to Taiwan.
“The Taiwanese are no doubt interested in what we are doing here, and last week we sent over 2kg samples of both primary and secondary phosphate,” he said.
“The mining of phosphate has certainly improved over recent years – there have been many advances in how surveying and drilling for example, are being conducted.”
He Aliklik said he wanted the NRC to have a greater focus on rehabilitation, “especially the higher ground of the island.”
“That’s because we don’t have enough space on the lower area on the coastal side, which causes a lot of overcrowding.
“We need to work on the higher ground to be able to provide more space, particularly because of the impact of climate change.”
He also pointed out that the country remains highly vulnerable to the impacts of global warming.
“More than 90 per cent of Nauruans live on the coastal fringe, and all the country’s critical infrastructure is on the coast – including schools, the hospital, government buildings, police headquarters, the airport and the majority of businesses.”
Minister Aliklik said he wanted to meet with the boards of both corporations early this month.