Vanuatu

His visit was to discuss with the Vanuatu Government in preparations for the next CHOGM meeting scheduled for 2017.

Deodat Maharaj and his Economic Advisor, Harshen Nyambe met the Director General of the MSG Secretariat, Peter Forau and the Deputy Director General, Molean Kilepak and Secretariat Staff on Thursday 17 September 2015.

Maharaj said his visit to Vanuatu and to the MSG Secretariat is part of his visit to Small Island States in the Pacific who are also members of the Commonwealth group of nations.

Bank of South Pacific (BSP) is working closely with the Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) to obtain the necessary approvals and discussions with the CBSI have been positive and have well-progressed.

This was revealed in a statement by BSP Group chairman Kostas Constantinou.

He says BSP is confident for a positive conclusion of the new application that is before the CBSI to allow the transaction to proceed shortly thereafter.

One senior business executive was at Auckland Airport on his way to the World Conference – preparing to advocate the merits of disaster resilience to his fellow executives – when news of the disaster prompted him to ditch his talking points, switch his ticket, and dash to guide his company’s recovery on the ground in Vanuatu.

Within 48 hours, instead of speaking to delegates in Sendai, the Chairman of the Board of Directors Digicel Samoa, Pepe Christian Fruean, was in Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila as part of the telecommunications company’s emergency deployment.

Six months after Cyclone Pam hit the Pacific, the bank approved the additional grant to support Tuvalu's medium-term recovery efforts.

Almost half of Tuvalu's 10,000 people were affected by the category 5 cyclone, which caused massive destruction as it passed in March, before continuing southwest to Vanuatu.

The system caused an estimated 10 million dollars worth of damages or more than 30 percent of the country's GDP.

He made the comment during a recent visit to Fiji and cited key priorities Pacific Opportunities: Leveraging Asia's Growth that would strengthen Pacific Island countries' links with Asian countries.

On shipping, Takehiko said, initial experience in Vanuatu and Solomon Islands suggested that subsidising the private sector on a competitive basis to undertake shipping routes to remote communities could be a better approach than through inefficient state-owned enterprises.

The meetings are being held at the Tanoa International Hotel, Nadi, Fiji. 

Senior officials and representatives from Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu will be in attendance as part of talks towards a new and more comprehensive trade agreement - MSGTA3 – that will now include Trade in Services, and new chapters such as Labour Mobility, Investment, and Telecommunications. 

MSG Leaders have directed that a draft legal text of the trade agreement must be ready by November 2015.

The meetings include: 

The 35 observers were divided into two groups with one group doing sea time at the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) and the other group undertaking the Pacific Islands Regional Fisheries Observer Syllabus Programme.

A statement from government said each group did five weeks of intensive training before going for the second part which will take another five weeks.

Deputy Director Offshore, Edward Honiwala who officially opened the second part of the programme said the observers will spend another five weeks before completing the programme.

The Prime Minister stated that, “I am very pleased today to reveal that the United Nations and its ICT agency, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), have decided to honor Vanuatu with the UN/ITU ‘Award for ICTs in Sustainable Development.’

“This award was given for using ICTs to help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

Vanuatu Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (VASANOC) President Antoine Boudier said they haven’t received any feedback from Melanesian Spearhead Group headquarters in Port Villa on the adoption of the new constitution by the leaders.

“Earlier this year in March we had a consultation in New Caledonia in regard of drafting the constitution or redrafting the constitution because it was mainly politically driven and was not going in accordance with the Pacific Games Council charter or the IOC or the International Federations.

Carlo in his report to the Pacific Games Council (PGC) Annual General Meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea yesterday said swimming one of the major attractions at any Pacific or Oceania meet is not on the programme.

“We had discussions with the Pacific Games Council executives on deleting swimming, there’s also a big question mark on  weightlifting because you know the small countries would like to have weightlifting because its their medal winning event.”