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Businesses picking up: Kuma

Written by
Eddie Osifelo
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Minister of Finance and Treasury Harry Kuma

By EDDIE OSIFELO

BUSINESS activities have slowly picked up in the third quarter this year as economy reopens.

Minister of Finance and Treasury, Harry Kuma revealed this in Parliament on Monday when he tabled the resolution in absence of the 2021 National Budget.

The resolution gave the Finance Minister to allow Government spending for the period of four months before the 2021 budget is tabled in Parliament in the first quarter next year.

Kuma said the improvement from the trough in April was most evident, in retail sales, where discretionary consumer spending rose.

“Firms, however, remained cautious despite the improvement, industrial production is still well below December levels.

“Thus, there is a broad based aggregate demand shock, compounding near term supply disruption due to uncertainty,” he said.

Furthermore, Kuma said as the number of global and domestic cases of covid-19 increases, its impact in the construction sector is expected to evolve over the coming months.

He said construction sector is expected to contract in 2020 given the delays to activity early in the year.

“Many infrastructure projects have been delayed until 2021, as the mobilization of technical expertise is constrained in the current environment.

“There are many large infrastructure projects expected to commence in 2021 and construction activity is expected to rebound quickly,” he said.

Moreover, Kuma said the covid-19 has left many manufacturers with a number of concerns.

He said so far, effects have largely been felt by business with very lean supply chains and in recent months there has been a pick up in domestic wholesale and retail activity.

He said manufacturing is expected to contract by around 12.2 percent in 2020, with key manufacturers facing depressed demand or supply side issues throughout 2020.

The hospitality and tourism business has been hit hard, with a number of jobs significantly reduced in one of the most labour intensive sectors of the economy.

Kuma said since March, visitor arrival dropped to zero except select repatriation of select approved expatriates and repatriation of nationals.

He said Solomon Airlines has recently announced further delays to their commercial fights, which are now not expected to recommence until early January 2021.

Kuma said recovery in tourism sector is still uncertain given the poor global outlook.

He said tourism is unlikely to return to pre-COVID 19 levels until beyond 2021 and this will be highly dependent on the covid-19 outlook, as tourists will not feel safe to travel and lifting travel restrictions many be enough to induce an appetite for tourism in the heightened risk environment.

Kuma said overall domestically funded year to date fiscal performance over the 8 months at 30th September, 2020, showed an overall deficit of $265.1 million.

More space needed for covid-19 patients

Written by
Mavis Podokolo
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Chengs Quarantine Station

BY MAVIS Nishimura PODOKOLO

MORE space is needed to segregate covid-19 patients, says Acting Incident Controller Dr Gregory Jilini.

Jilini during the covid-19 talkback show said due to the demand of more space to segregate, work on the multi-purpose hall is progressing and also work to renovate and upgrade the Tuberculosis ward will commence soon.

“We need more space not only in terms of number but in terms of this spaces need to be separated so that we do not mix all the positive cases as there is need to segregate the positives.

Jilini said therefore because of this need, the work on the multi-purpose hall is progressing well and that space should be ready later this week.

“We need this multipurpose hall for to be completed as soon as possible because the capacity we have at the National Referral Hospital is limited and so we need that one so that we can accommodate all positive cases.

“We are also going to renovate and upgrade the Tubercules (TB) ward, NRH so that we can also keep positive cases because we have cases that positive but within the positive cases there are different groups and not all of them should stay together,” he said.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare on Monday this week said “I am pleased to inform you all that our Field hospital will most likely become operational this week. Once it is opened, all our existing Covid-19 positive cases will be transferred to the new field hospital.

“Work will also start soon on the refurbishment of the current TB ward at the National referral hospital to convert it into a 16-bed isolation facility. Once completed this facility will enhance the Ministry of Health’s capacity to manage patients requiring isolation facilities.”

4 + 4 + 4

Written by
Press Release
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Governor General Sir David Vunagi

State of public emergency extended again

GOVERNOR General Sir David Vunagi extended the State of Public Emergency (SOPE) last night for a further four months following the expiry of the country’s second SOPE yesterday, November 24, 2020.

The extension has been made upon recommendation from the Prime Minister following a Cabinet endorsement last week.

One of the key reasons for the extension is to protect the country from any community spread of covid-19 by containing the virus in quarantine centres.

Currently the Government is caring for our repatriated citizens and residents in quarantine stations and they cannot remain there without a state of public emergency.

Government cannot also carry out testing on perfectly healthy persons without their consent, but under a State of Public Emergency, testing can be done.

Furthermore, Cabinet had approved the deferment of the Public Health Emergency Bill, which should replace the SOPE due to resource constraints.

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 16(2) of the Constitution, the Governor General by a Proclamation has declared last night that a state of public emergency exists in Solomon Islands on and from November 24, 2020 on the grounds that:

The World Health Organisation has declared that the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (“covid-19”) is a public health emergency of international concern and is a pandemic.

Furthermore, covid-19 can easily transmit from person to person and is capable of causing a severe respiratory illness, which may lead to death.

The proclamation further states that it is necessary to take measures to ensure that covid-19 is not transmitted from person to person within Solomon Islands (including by controlling the entry of persons into Solomon Islands and requiring the quarantining and testing of persons).

It also added that it is necessary to preserve public health, safety, order and security during the global outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic.

The first SOPE was declared on March 25, 2020.

This declaration was further extended by Parliament by way of a resolution for a period of four months, which ceased on July 24 and the Governor General issued another proclamation on the same by entering Solomon Island into its second SOPE period.

Solomon Islands recorded its first covid-19 positive case on October 3, 2020 and since then the SOPE has enabled the Government to act decisively and swiftly.

It has also assisted in the preparedness and response planning by the government authorities.

The extension of the SOPE will end on March 24, 2021.

–GCU

Half of ESP funds gone

Written by
Eddie Osifelo
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Minister Hurry Kuma

By EDDIE OSIFELO

THE Government has spent $184.5 million of the $309 million under the Economic Stimulus Package.

Minister of Finance and Treasury, Harry Kuma confirmed this in Parliament yesterday during the motion on resolution to authorise spending under the Consolidated Funds from January to April 2021.

The resolution came about because the Government could not table the 2021 National Budget due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kuma said all Committee’s formal approval process is scheduled to be completed by the end of this month, and notification to the successful recipient, formalities towards formalisation of contract and disbursement of funds will continue.

He assured Parliament that initial monitoring of the early implementation of the Economic Stimulus Package is progressing.

“The process will also include proper auditing on the implementation of the policy and Parliament will be formally presented with a final audit report,” he said.

Furthermore, Kuma said early results on the implementation of the Stimulus Package proves significant positive impact of the package in our economy as figures from the exports of major commodities include copra, kava, and timber proves the achievement of this underlying policy objective of the stimulus package.

He said the three biggest achievers include record production in copra, kava and timber export from June, 2020 to the end of October 2020, despite the covid-19 pandemic.

“Copra production during this period for example reached over 4,000 metric tonnes of copra valued at $3.7 million, and an annual increase of 3,444 tonnes of copra compare to the same period in 2019 despite covid-19.

On kava, Kuma said over 13 thousand metric tonnes of kava was produced and valued at over $4 million.

Furthermore, Kuma said the forestry sectors also revealed early positive impact on the implementation of the stimulus package, as more than four thousand metric tonnes of sawn timbers valued at $12 million were exported since June to October 2020.

He said other preliminary results also comes through from our cocoa trading as almost 700 metric tonnes of cocoa dry beans exported valued at $7 million falls right into the hands of more than 2000 local farmers.

Moreover, Kuma said the ESP also benefited State Owned Enterprises like Solomon Airlines, Solomon Water and Soltuna Company Limited.

He said under the infrastructure component of ESP, three major contracts to be executed are Kirakira ramp, Maluú wharf and Tabaá bridge in Malaita, which work expected to start in December.

Kuma said tender process should commence soon for Fiu Bridge and Segeh airport.

FB will be temporarily suspended: PM

Written by
Alfred Pagepitu
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PM Sogavare

BY ALFRED PAGEPITU

PRIME minister Manasseh Sogavare has elaborated in parliament his decision, backed by cabinet, to ban facebook.

“Facebook needs to be suspended so that relevant regulations can be brought to Parliament to regulate the use of facebook,” he said.

He told Parliament that his Cabinet agreed to suspended facebook on Thursday, November 12, 2020.

“This was a not spur of the moment deliberation. In fact, concerns over use of Facebook has always been there.

“Today I will make a statement on the Cabinet decision to temporary suspend access to Facebook.

“Since then, there has been a lot of commentary and publication on Facebook on the decision of Cabinet to temporarily suspend access to Facebook,” he said.

Sogavare explained that a lot has been said about the reason why Cabinet has made this decision.

He said the Leader of Opposition, Leader of the Independent and the Member for East Are Are have also waded in on the debate media as well.

PM said he appreciates their comments, after all they are simply exercising their freedom of expression, a fundamental freedom that is provided for and protected by our Constitution.

Sogavare assured all that the decision to temporarily suspend access to Facebook was not at any time made with the intention to gag the media or the people who are constructively raising issues against the Government on social media.

“We are all politicians and getting criticised by the public comes with the territory. This is normal and is never a reason to suspend access to any social media platform.

“The decision to suspend access to Facebook is not a brazen attack on the freedom of expression as most have made it out to be.”

He said, on the outset, it is important to state that there is no legislation in Solomon Islands to govern and regulate the use of such social media platforms such as Facebook.

“In short the use of social media platforms such as Facebook in Solomon Islands is unregulated.

“We have always relied on the moral and ethical predisposition of users to use Facebook responsibly. However, sadly this has failed.”

He said the Government has always held the position that the unregulated use of Facebook in the Solomon Islands is a potential threat to public security, public safety and public morality.

Dentana, when? Opposition leader asks

Written by
Press Release
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MoFT Permanent Secretary McKinnie Dentana. Photo by SBM

THE Leader of Opposition, Matthew Wale, has called on the Permanent Secretary of Finance to state when he will publish the list of Economic Stimulus Package (ESP) beneficiaries.

In a media statement last week, responding to PS Finance’s statements during a talkback show on Sunday (Nov 15), Wale said Dentana’s statements were evasive.

He stressed that what would be most useful is that PS Finance simply tell the country the date these lists will be published.

On the ESP 600k payment to Northeast Guadalcanal Constituency, Wale said the PS Finance’s statements were confusing.

“First there was denial that such a payment was made. This was followed by an admission that the payment was made, but was withheld. Now the former MP has confirmed that the payment actually went into the constituency account,” says the Opposition Leader.

Wale said, “These are constituency funds meant for constituents, and the timing of this payment made close to a bye election makes it appear sinister. Nobody with a vested interest in the election outcome should be making allocation decisions to constituents during a by-election.

“The fact that no similar payments were made to the other two constituencies with vacant parliamentary seats points to the fact that it appears the government was flirting with allowing the former MP to distribute these funds.”

“Or is it just sheer incompetence?” asked Wale.

The Opposition Leader however expressed gratitude to the PS Finance for finally announcing that ESP $600,000 due to the three constituencies with vacant parliamentary seats will be paid after the by-elections, adding that this is common sense and a good decision.

Wale further called on the PS Finance to be more efficient in deciding the rest of the ESP beneficiaries.

Whilst understanding the complexity of the tasks involved and the need to safeguard public funds, Wale points out that it has taken too long to decide these ESP allocations.

–OPPOSITION PRESS

6 covid-19 case in Manila, second repa-flight cancelled

Written by
Mavis Podokolo
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Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

THE second repatriation flight to bring home students in Philippines was cancelled for a later date due to six more students testing positive for covid-19.

The second repatriation flight arrival date was scheduled for today, November 24, 2020.

These new cases bring to total 28 Solomon Islands students tested positive for covid-19 in the Philippines.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in his national address yesterday said, “Fellow citizens I am deeply sorry to inform you all that the repatriation flight from Manila that was scheduled to arrive tomorrow, Tuesday 24 November 2020, has been cancelled to a later date.

“The reason for the cancellation is that we have just received the test results of all 143 passengers a short while ago, and 6 of the students returned positive tests for Covid-19.

“This is extremely unfortunate as this flight had been planned for a long time. We commenced our 21-days pre-departure tests three weeks ago on those that were scheduled to travel on this flight.

“Obviously, the students had broken quarantine in Manila. They could not have contracted Covid-19 in the hotel. They would have gone out of the hotel. They have now put all the students living in the same hotel at risk,” said Sogavare.

He said the likelihood that many of the other students scheduled for this flight would have been exposed to the six positive students given this new development.

Sogavare with this, the Oversight Committee had recommended that the flight be postponed to another date.

“Our health team is currently undertaking contact tracing. As soon as we have a clearer picture of the situation, we will reschedule the flight.

“I ask all the students remaining in Manila at huge cost to the country, please, do not do things that will put other students and our country at risk. We will establish if the six students had broken quarantine. The consequence of the six positive cases is the cancellation of tomorrow’s flight.

“I am happy to reassure the nation that where we can, we will intervene to stop the importation of covid-19 into the country, as we have just done with the cancellation of the flight from Manila tomorrow.

“We urge our students waiting to be repatriated from Manila to take absolute care. Do not to go out from the hotels to the surrounding communities. Manila has an extremely high Community transmission rate. It is very unfortunate that six students had tested positive. This has led to the cancellation of the full flight tomorrow,” he said.

Another case

Written by
Barnabas Manebona
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Covid-19
Photo: Google

One covid-19 positive from Indonesia repa-flight

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

SOLOMON Islands has registered another positive Coronavirus (Covid-19) case.

The latest positive Covid-19 case now brings the total number of registered cases in the country to 17.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in his ‘Nationwide Address’ yesterday said the case is one of the country’s nationals that returned on the Garuda Airlines charter flight arriving from Indonesia on November 17.

“My good people, I regret to inform you that we have registered another positive COVID-19 case in the country. The case is one of our nationals that returned to the country on the Garuda Airlines charter flight that arrived from Indonesia on 17 November 2020,” said Sogavare.

“This latest case now brings the total number of registered cases in the country to 17. Of the 17, six are now negative, and 11 remain positive. Of the 11 cases, 10 are our soccer players that returned from England on 25 October 2020.”

To note, according to the Prime Minister, this revelation has raised a new concern in relation to the virulence of the Covid-19 strain that came in from the United Kingdom.

“These players have now been in the country for 4 weeks. However, unlike the cases that came from Philippines and Korea that converted to negative within 2-3 weeks, the strain from the UK is still positive after 4 weeks,” said Sogavare.

“This finding has fully vindicated our testing protocol whereby we require 3 consecutive negative tests after the person tested positive before they can be released from the quarantine station to a lower level (step down) quarantine facility for another week before being released home.

“If we had followed the current global practice of releasing these persons without further testing on day 14 after they tested positive, we would have released people that are still positive into the community and started a community transmission of the virus.

“The next test of the soccer players is scheduled for tomorrow [Tuesday], Tuesday 24 November 2020. This is 30 days after their return to Solomon Islands. It is my hope that most if not all of them will come back negative so that the numbers of active cases in our country can reduce from the current 11 cases to a lower figure.

“Fellow citizens, I am pleased to inform you all that our Field hospital will most likely become operational this week. Once it is opened, all our existing Covid-19 positive cases will be transferred to the new field hospital.

“Work will also start soon on the refurbishment of the current TB ward at the National referral hospital to convert it into a 16-bed isolation facility. Once completed this facility will enhance the Ministry of Health’s capacity to manage patients requiring isolation facilities.”

Solomon Islands Prime Minister elaborated being deeply sorry to inform everyone that the repatriation flight from Manila that was scheduled to arrive tomorrow [today], Tuesday 24 November 2020, has been cancelled to a later date.

“The reason for the cancellation is that we have just received the test results of all 143 passengers a short while ago, and 6 of the students returned positive tests for Covid-19,” said Sogavare.

“This is extremely unfortunate as this flight had been planned for a long time. We commenced our 21-days pre-departure tests 3 weeks ago on those that were scheduled to travel on this flight.

“Obviously, the students had broken quarantine in Manila. They could not have contracted Covid-19 in the hotel. They would have gone out of the hotel. They have now put all the students living in the same hotel at risk.

“Given this new development, and the likelihood that many of the other students scheduled for this flight would have been exposed to the 6 positive students, the Oversight Committee had recommended that the flight be postponed to another date. Our health team is currently undertaking contact tracing. As soon as we have a clearer picture of the situation, we will reschedule the flight.”

At huge cost to the country, Mr Sogavare asks all students remaining in Manila to please do not do things that will put other students and Solomon Islands at risk.

“We will establish if the 6 students had broken quarantine. The consequence of the 6 positive cases is the cancellation of tomorrow’s [today] flight,” said Sogavare.

“My good people I thank you for your continued support to our students staying in our quarantine stations in the country. They deserve our support as they undergo this sacrifice to protect our nation.

“I am happy to reassure the nation that where we can, we will intervene to stop the importation of Covid-19 into the country, as we have just done with the cancellation of the flight from Manila tomorrow [today].

“Where the virus had inadvertently entered the country, we will detect, isolate, manage and eliminate it from our border quarantine stations.

“With God’s Grace, and the dedication of all our front-liners, we have been able to contain all Covid-19 cases in the country to date, in our quarantine stations.”

Solomon Islands today continue to fight against Covid-19.

Second Philippines repa-flight Nov 24

Written by
Mavis Podokolo
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Solomon Airlines airbus

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

THE second repatriation flight for Solomon Islands Student in Philippines planned for November 24, 2020 still stands.

Collin Beck, Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Foreigner Affairs and External Trade (MFAET), confirmed this yesterday during a radio talkback show on covid-19 updates.

“The second flight for Manila is on the 24th of this month (November).

“Names of those student who will be coming in this flight are already in a list and students who will be becoming on this flight were already aware,” said Beck.

Dr Yogesh Choudri, technical Advisor to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, said for these students who are coming on November 24 “actually each one of them have been tested five or six times”.

“This is because we were planning to bring them earlier so the testing was started earlier and now every one of them were tested at least four times starting from October 30, November 6, November 17 and another round of test is happening yesterday.

“So at least four tests be detected negative before they will board the flight on 24th of this month,” said Choudri.

Dr Jimmie Rodgers, Secretary to Prime Minister, said: “we have more than students who have been quarantined for more than two months whilst Philippines is till very high risk those individuals themselves believed to be lower risk.

“Therefore, they are qualified to come over.”

Test results of 11 positives on Thursday

Written by
Mavis Podokolo
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0
Photo: Google

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

THE next tests for the 11 positive covid-19 patients will be taken tomorrow and test results will be made available on Thursday this week.

This was confirmed by Dr Jimmie Rodgers, Secretary to Prime Ministry.

“Currently we have 16 positive cases recorded in the country five recovering and 11 actives.

“The next test of 11 positive is on Tuesday hopefully the number will decrease after these tests.

“Hopefully there will be no negatives on Tuesday which we will know on Thursday 48 hours later,” said Rodgers.

Acting Incident Controller Dr Gregory Jilini adds, in terms of the seven locals kept in quarantine at the Nila isolation ward, they have served their mandatory quarantined period which lapsed on Thursday last week and they have done their three tests and all detected negative.

“We have issued them their certificates and they have been released,” said Jilini.

He said for testing kits there is still adequate suppliers.

“We still have adequate suppliers of testing kits that will last up until next year and we are also placing new orders with WHO so they can provide more testing kits so we do not run out of them,” said Jilini.

He adds, at the moment 176 persons still at the quarantine stations later this week six or a bit more will be released if they meet the criteria of mandatory quarantined protocols and testing protocols.

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