Solomon Islands Gov’t receives K3.0 Million from the Papua New Guinea Gov’t For Education Grant Assistance

The Solomon Islands High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, His Excellency Mr Bernard Bata’anisia

By Andrew Fanasia Jr.

The Solomon Islands High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, His Excellency Mr Bernard Bata’anisia today received a cheque of K3.0 million (SBD8.4 million) for payment of tuition fees for the Solomon Islands students currently studying at various tertiary insitutions in PNG.

The K3.0 million Education Grant Assistance for the 2010 academic year is part of the K23.0 million pledged by the PNG Government in 2006 to assist the Solomon Islands Government in the construction of its Chancery in Port Moresby, as well as provide assistance in sponsorship and training of selected Solomon Islands students in PNG tertiary institutions and colleges.

The Acting Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ambassador Lucy Bogari handed over the grant funding to Mr Bata’anisia during a short ceremony in Waigani.

The Acting Secretary said that the Government of PNG was very pleased to extend the assistance to its closest neighbour and friend. The grant assistance continued the Government of Paua New Guinea’s previous commitment of providing technical assistance to Solomon Islands. The assistance is also in direct response to a request made by the Solomon Islands Government.

The Assistance also honours the commitments on cooperation agreed between the two countries under the Memorandum of Agreement relating to existing Development Assistance to Solomon Islands signed in 2006.

Upon receiving the Grant Assistance, His Excellency Mr Bata’anisia expressed his gratitude on behalf of the Solomon Islands Government to the people and the Government of Papua New Guinea for facilitating the Grant Assistance.

“Education and training has linked our two countries together and further strengthening of our bilateral ties”, Mr Bata’anisia said.

He said there are about 285 students in 2010 who are sponsored under this grant assistance with the numbers continue to grow over the years because of the Grant Assistance.

“The assistance will no doubt go a long way in meeting the manpower and the training needs of Solomon Islands”, Mr Bata’anisia said.

Mr Bata’anisia said Solomon Islands is a young and developing country and such training of its human resources is a top priority for the government.

“Therefore the contribution of the Paua new Guinea Government in our endeavours is timely and appreciated by the Government and people of Solomon Islands”, he said.

He said the K3.0 million funding will go towards meeting the cost of tuition fees for the students while part of the funding assistance will go towards the funding of the new Solomon Islands High Commission Chancery in Port Moresby.

S.I wants urgent actions on climate change

Hon. Peter Shanel, Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade. (Pic Solomon Times)

By Andrew Fanasia Jr.
In New York (UN Headquarter)

Solomon Islands Foreign and External Trade Minister Mr. Peter Shanel made an urgent call from the 65th United Nation General Assembly for enhanced measures to be taken on combating climate change among other highlighted issues.

“It is critical that we must have a clear path of stabilizing green house gas emissions.”

“Solomon Islands supports Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) call to reduce temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius and to bring down green house gas concentration to well below 350 parts per million,” Mr. Shanel said in his statement before the Assembly’s high-level debate on Monday.


Referring to the legally binding agreement on climate change which set to be held in November in Cancun Mexico, Mr. Shanel said, the necessity of reaching the climate change agreement “cannot be over-emphasized.”

Mr. Shanel said our planet is already absorbing more heat and getting warmer.

He added under the current trend, science tells us that the temperature will further increase by 4 to 7 degree Celsius by the end of this century, threatening the survival of many including Solomon Islands.

Noting there is limited atmospheric carbon space left, Mr. Shanel stressed a carbon budget approach is an option to prevent the climate from reaching irreversible levels in a just and fair manner.

Our country, he said, “it takes into consideration development needs, our shared responsibilities and rights towards meeting the demands of the health of our atmosphere.”

Also highlighted in his statement before the UN General Assembly, Solomon Islands is to some extent off track in terms of meeting its 2015 Millennium Goals.

Mr. Shanel told the Assembly that our country have its special situation that demand special international attention.
In this regard, Mr. Shanel stressed, “Solomon Islands call for a special category for Small Islands Development States (SIDS) within the UN system.”

Meanwhile, in his statement Mr. Shanel acknowledges United Nations outreach to Solomon Islands this year by convening a UN National Competitive Recruitment Exams in December.

“We welcome this engagement as it provides the opportunity for successful citizens to fill our national quota of international civil servants serving our family of nations,” Mr. Shanel told the President of the 65th session of the General Assembly on Monday in New York.

Opposition urges gov’t to speed process.

By Andrew Fanasia Jr.

Editor's Desk

The citizens of this country are anticipating hearing and seeing the government’s policy framework and its budgetary plan for the next four years.

Member of Parliament for Small Malaita constituency Mr. Rick Hou echoed the same sentiment expressed by other opposition members; about the timing of the government’s policy framework and budgetary plans to be known as soon as possible.

Mr. Hou firmly questioned the time frame taken by the government to come out with its priorities and the budget.

“How long is the enough time for the new government to formalize its policy framework and the national budget taking into consideration the time frame from August 2010 into April 2011,” Mr. Hou questioned the government in parliament yesterday.

He added that the time frame should be sufficient for the government to put in place their priorities and the national budget.

Mr. Hou said after parliament passed the 2010 Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2010 and the Motion of Resolution the government is expected to seriously put forward their policies and their plans for the 2011 national budget.

“We cannot wait another eight months for this budget and our people are waiting tirelessly to see the budget,” Mr. Hou firmly told the government side yesterday in parliament.

On the same issue, Member of Parliament for Auki/Langalanga Matthew Wale said our people want to see the government that is fully functioning.

“A government that is financed, a government that is looking after their interests,” Mr. Wale said.

It was widely expressed on the floor of the parliament by the opposition members that the people of this country wanted to see the Government’s 2011 budget as soon as possible.

The Member of Parliament for North East Choiseul Mr. Manasseh Sogavare also challenged the government to accelerate the process to get the 2011 budget before parliament for parliament’s scrutiny.

Mr. Sogavare however, commended the development partners for their contribution towards 2010 budget and hope to see the same contribution to the 2011 national budget.

Meanwhile, Mr. Philip confidently told parliament yesterday that the new government policy framework is in the final stage and “we will launch our policy on Monday next week.”

RAMSI prepares to leave Solomons Shores

LEAVING: Australian soldiers walks  off the Hercules at the Henderson International airport

By Daniel Flitton in Honiara
Sydney morning Herald

Australian officials here have begun planning for the eventual exit of its multimillion-dollar regional police and security mission.

It comes as the newly elected Prime Minister, Danny Philip, declares he hopes the country can stand alone within five years.

Mr Philip said the seven-year Australian-led intervention, known as RAMSI, could not be expected to remain forever.

''We'd like to be free, we'd like to do things on our own, but we cannot impose on ourselves a situation of doing things ourselves until we're properly prepared.

"But at the same time … we are making sure the day RAMSI will exit from Solomon Islands will be hastened as well, so I think we will be looking at another five to six years.''

RAMSI was first deployed in 2003 and at its height involved more than 2000 troops and police from across the region, most of them from Australia.

Now mostly a police and civilian presence, 187 Australian Federal Police officers are deployed across the country and officials hold finance and legal roles in the government.

Australian funding for the mission is due to expire in 2013, and a special ''transition committee'' has been set up to manage the draw-down.

The RAMSI deputy special co-ordinator, Justin Fepulea'i, said the committee has so far held an internal discussion between Australia and New Zealand and was yet to engage the Solomons government.

He said a five- to six-year timetable to wind up the mission was ''reasonably realistic'' but foreign assistance in the country was likely to continue in other forms.

‘‘[It] is a balance between getting out too early, with the repercussions that might flow from that, against the risk from staying too long, and having people start to question why you are still here.''

The mission has been criticised by some local politicians as a breach of national sovereignty and an attempt at re-colonisation.

However, Mr Philip said he was sure the Australian-led force would gladly leave if asked.

He said people were entitled to cast judgment on members of his government but the fluid nature of politics in the nation, with about 18 political parties fighting for 50 seats, made maintaining a coalition difficult.

He acknowledged his ragtag coalition government suffered an international image problem.

Its Fisheries Minister is a former militant facing murder charges and the minister in charge of forests is the owner of a logging company.

But Mr Philip said defeated candidates always sought to dredge up the past of the victors.

''There's a bit of frivolity in it, there's not seriousness in it. It's a little bit of smear campaign.''

Mr Philip said he was aware allegations of corruption could shake the confidence of foreign aid donors.

Meanwhile he said women are absent from the 50-member parliament because of a stigma in the society that regarded men as better politicians than women.

He said he would support a move to reserve 10 seats for women in parliament if that was the outcome of a constitutional and electoral review.

Journalists welcome Fiji Times sale but question future editorial policy

The Fiji media panel at the Oceans, Islands and Skies conference in Suva: Alumeci Nakeke (from left), USP head of journalism Shailendra Singh, Dawn Gibson and Ricardo Morris. Photo: David Robie/PMC

Pacific Scoop

Report – By Pacific Media Watch in Suva

Three editors and journalists today welcomed news of the sale of the Fiji Times to a local Fiji business as good for environmental journalism reporting in the region.

But they reserved judgment on the future independence of the newspaper under future owners Motibhai.

Speaking at the global Oceans, Islands and Skies conference at the University of the South Pacific in response to an address about “iconic media environmental images of the Pacific – a challenge to corporate media” by Pacific Media Centre director David Robie, the three editors and journalists were relieved that the 141-year-old newspaper would survive the controversial media decree ultimatum.

A Fiji Times environmental campaign. A strong part of its profile. And now?
Mailife magazine editor Ricardo Morris said: “The Fiji Times has been part of our lives since I was very small.”

He said it was the one newspaper in Fiji that had the financial and reporting resources to respond to major natural disasters in the country and to report on them.

But Morris questioned whether the paper would be able to afford to continue that role when it is taken over by the Motibhai Group on September 22.


Independence ‘unclear’
“It is too early to say about the editorial independence of the paper,” he added. “That’s still unclear.”

Former Fiji Sun journalist Alumeci Nakeke, who started the newspaper’s “green page” environmental section and is currently with the Seaweb project, called for ongoing strong reporting by the Fiji Times on environmental issues.

She cited the daily coverage on climate change and environmental issues as one of the strong points of the current newspaper.

Dawn Gibson, journalism and literature student and former editor of Wansolwara, said there would not be much immediate change to the Fiji Times in light of the current censorship climate.
“But I think it will be positive change for the reporting of climate change,” she said.

She said the Fiji Times had been forced to become more focused on human interest issues, including climate change, in the post-coup environment.

The military-backed regime imposed a Media Industry Development Decree in June. This gave media companies three months to divest foreign shareholdings higher than 10 percent and to sell to local interests.

Highest circulation
The Fiji Times is the highest circulation English-language newspaper in any Pacific island state.

Murdoch’s News Ltd announced in Sydney yesterday that the Motibhai Group would buy out the newspaper but reportedly without the central city property holdings in Suva.

The Fiji Sun today reported that Motibhai chairman and chief executive officer Mahendra Patel, who had previously been a director of the Fiji Times would name the new management team on September 22 when the import company takes over the newspaper on September – six days before the decree deadline expires.

Patel told the Sun that his company had bought the “entire operations with the real estate”.

http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/09/journalists-welcome-fiji-times-sale-but-question-future-editorial-policy/#more-9946