Provincial participants attend workshop in Honiara

MORE than 10 participants from Choiseul and Isabel Province were in Honiara this attending a week long capacity building workshop organized by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) with the support of funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Australian Government. Participants are representatives of TNC partners from the Choiseul Provincial Government, Choiseul Provincial…

Gov’t clarifies air space agreement

THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade (MFAET) wishes to correct some errors in a news article published by the Island Sun newspaper on Wednesday 16th April 2015 regarding the Solomon Islands-Fiji Air Services Agreement. A statement from the Ministry said the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to implement the 1990 Air Services Agreement (ASA)…

Public invited for Anzac dawn service

THE Australian and New Zealand High Commissions welcome public attendance at the Anzac Day Centenary Dawn Service at the Cenotaph on Saturday 25 April. This year marks the 100th anniversary since the Anzac tradition was born on the shores of Gallipoli in Turkey during the First World War, where the feats of the Australian and…

Police conduct talks for youth

POLICE Commissioner Frank Prendergast attended a Youth@Work awareness talk this week in Honiara. “I had the opportunity to address well over 150 young people and discuss police community partnership vision and the work we’re trying to do around crime prevention,” Mr Prendergast said. He stressed he had some very good questions from the floor about…

Pacific’s triple burden undermine advances

THE Pacific continues to face unprecedented health challenges, says World Health Organization regional director Dr Shin Young-Soo. Speaking at the opening of the Eleventh Pacific Health Ministers meeting on Yanuca Island near Sigatoka, Dr Young-Soo said the region’s triple burden of non-communicable diseases, communicable disease and climate change complications threatened to undermine advances in health…

Minister reveals public service reforms

PUBLIC Service minister John Dean Kuku says some reforms to improve public service performances are ready underway. He revealed this in parliament. These reforms include: (1)   The Performance Management Policy (PMP) The management performance policy is aiming at improving performance at organisational, unit and individual levels. The Annual Confident Report (ACR) was the first public…

Accessing justice

Report from ODPP Gizo office THE cancellation of Magistrates court circuits due to the shortage of principal magistrates has affected the disposal rate of matters handled by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) branch in Gizo, Western Province. This is according to the 2014 annual report from the ODPP branch in Gizo…

Improving search and rescue in the Pacific

THE Pacific has moved one step closer to achieving a harmonised regional approach to search and rescue capability as promoted in the Search and Rescue Technical Arrangement for Cooperation among Pacific Island countries and territories. At the Sixth Pacific Regional Search and Rescue Workshop held in Noumea, New Caledonia (13–17 April 2015), Pacific Island delegates…

Cost of Pam to Vanuatu

POVERTY and unemployment in Vanuatu are expected to worsen as a consequence of the devastating impact of Cyclone Pam. According to statistics released today by the Department of Labour (DoL) in Vanuatu, approximately U$7 million or VT7 Billion of personal income have been lost due to Pam. The Category 5 cyclone left a trail of…