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Solomon Islands bit too clinical: PNG coach

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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BY ROMULUS HUTA

Solomon Islands striker Raphael Le’ai gets a touch to the ball ahead of the PNG player in yesterday’s encounter at Lawson Tama

PNG under-16 head coach admits that his boys went down to a better side following the 5-0 loss conceded against Solomon Islands in their Pool A campaign opener of the OFC Under-16 Championship yesterday at Lawson Tama Stadium.

Speaking to the media in the post-match conference, coach Anthony Pakatota said Solomon Islands were a bit too clinical for them with their fast-paced plays and that contributes to their loss.

“The first game is always an important game in this kind of tournament. It’s always good to get a good start. We did not start well.

“Solomon was a bit too clinical with their fast pace so therefore, they caught us a lot out wide and also in the inside,” he said.

Pakatota explained that Solomon Islands made good use of the home ground turf to their best advantage and rules out on Sunday’s slippery and wet conditions as a contributing factor.

“Lawson Tama is always a slippery and a fast pitch on weather like this.

“Blaming the weather for the loss, I don’t really think so. It goes down to experience, especially when it’s not your home ground, you don’t know the pitch but we can only hope for the best.

“But that’s the advantage they have, you know Solomon Islands used their home ground to their best use.

“We’re a bit slow in recovery in defence; we tightened it up a bit in the second half and the idea worked out to be more competitive,” he added.

PNG will play Vanuatu in their second match set for Wednesday 10am.

Parents worried by social media effects on kids

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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BY Ezekiel Talatau

INFLUENCE of social media on students is becoming an increasing worry for parents in the country.

Speaking to Island Sun, a concerned parent who wises anonymity, said she has witnessed her daughter’s academic grades drop as interest in social media grew and she spent most of her time on social media.

Another parent comments that social media affects students’ traditional lifestyle, along with their academic performances.

It is estimated about 20 percent of students using social media are connected with their school and activities, 25 percent show a sign of depression and status updates; 96 percent of students giving up of using Social media have a high grade.

Facebook platform creates a significant connection for students to share ideas and do research and to connect people and family all over the world.

“Currently, there is no assessment been done on students using social media in Solomon Islands, but monitoring them through their activities is one way to investigate,” said a concerned parent.

Community officers ready for important roles in Malaita

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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MPGIS permanent secretary Stanley Pirione.

BY GEORGE MANFORD

AUKI

MPGIS permanent secretary Stanley Pirione.

FIFTEEN community liaison officers (CLOs) from the wards in Malaita have concluded their induction workshop last Friday in Auki.

The one-week workshop began last Monday with chiefs and church leaders around Malaita province joining the programme for the first three days.

During the official closing programme last Friday, permanent secretary from the ministry of the provincial government and institutional strengthening (MPGIS) Mr Stanley Pirione thanked the CLOs for their commitment during the training.

He voiced his optimism that the officers are now well equipped with knowledge on their roles and what is expected of them.

“This programme must be carried out in our communities in Malaita making sure that you are representing your provincial government, the police and also the national government to address issues raise in our communities.

“By attending this weeklong training I believe the CLOs have fully equipped with knowledge and understanding regarding their duties as community liaison officers.”

PPC of Malaita province Timothy Apaesi.

Also speaking during the programme, Provincial Police Commander (PPC) of Malaita province Timothy Apaesi said the Auki police will be working closely with the CLOs in the communities in Malaita.

“I believe from time to time we will put our hands together working with our communities trying to address issues and also to reduce other unti-social behaviours in our communities.

“The set up that the Malaita provincial government has set is a way forward for the people in Malaita for addressing lasting peace and also to pave a way forward for development.

“Wishing the CLO’s a good and effective programme in our communities where we all work together for a better Malaita.”

Community Liason Officers in a group photo.

Ministry asked to help Malaita tackle logging problem

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Logging impacts in Solomon Islands IMAGE story.

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

AUKI

THE Ministry of Forest and Research has been asked to work together with the Malaita provincial government to address issues in the growing logging industry in the province.

The call follows worrying observations that logging companies head straight into operations in the province without paying the provincial business fee.

Revenue Officer under Malaita Provincial Government (MPG) who responsible for logging licence fees, Mr Eddro Misite’e made the statement saying this undermines the provincial government.

He said in Malaita province logging companies, upon receiving permits from the national ministry of forestry, go straight into operations and do not bother to pay the provincial business licence fee.

He said sometimes they fail to consult the Malaita province government to pay their business or licence fees before embarking on the business in the province.

Misite’e said they experienced that some logging companies turned up to pay their business fees when they are doing their felling or even shipment of logs.

He said this is non-compliance to MPG ordinance as all businesses to operate in the province must pay their fees first before operating.

Misite’e said this is an area of concern and MFR must work together with MPG on it to ensure this area to be ironed.

He said MPG respect all investors wish to engage in business in the province, hence they must also respect the province as well.

Funds run out, 60 SIG students terminated

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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USP Laucala Campus

By Alfred Sasako

SOME 60 Solomon Islands students, sponsored by the government have had their University of the South Pacific (USP) scholarships terminated or suspended because funding for their awards has run out.

But the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) kept the students in the dark about this until the USP Honiara Campus had terminated students’ accounts, denying them access to facilities such as the internet, one student told Island Sun on the weekend.

“Each time we asked about what was going on, the usual excuse was the National Training Committee (NTC) was yet to meet on our awards. This went on for more than a month, before the National Training Unit (NTU) Director gave us the bombshell, the student said.

“All this time MEHRD has been told by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury to cut back on the scholarship awards because funds have run out,” the student said.

The student said the Ministry only told them about the problem when they inquired about why the USP Solomon Islands Campus had de-registered their school accounts.

“They told us that half the 60 students have had their scholarships terminated on account of failing their courses. The other half were given suspension letters but were told to appeal.

“The majority of us have succeeded in our appeals but instead of reinstating all of us, only one student was reinstated. We don’t know why. It is quite possible this was due to the wantok system,” the student.

“In fact the Director of the National Training Unit (NTU) told us we had a choice to remain in Honiara or to go home. There is no money to continue your award. There will be money in next year’s Budget for your awards,” the students were told.

The student said she was one of those who had chosen to return home as there was nothing to do in Honiara.

“Sometimes one wonders whether the Ministry has done its sums before making scholarship awards,” the student said.

Malaita leads country in logging scale

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0
Logging in Solomon Islands. Photo supplied

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

AUKI

MALAITA province currently has the highest number of logging companies working in it, it is reported.

And, it is projected that the number of logging companies in Malaita will increase in the years to come.

Chief Forestry Officer of Malaita province, Mr Francis Kiriau in a recent interview said there are 20 active logging licences in Malaita province.

He adds that there are more licences in queue to be approved for operation in Malaita.

Kiriau said that in the coming months, Malaita will see more logging companies operating in the province as these pending licences get approved.

He said according to their record, the southern region of Malaita hosts most of the logging operations.

Kiriau said there were about two logging operations in the area of West Kwara’ae and West Fataleka and about one in East Malaita.

He said the areas with more logging activities started from West Kwaio toward Are Are (both East and West) and Small Malaita.

Kiriau said all the operations are Asian owned contractors and locally own licensees who incorporated the activities.

He said all these logging operations are on primary forests where natural forests continue to reap under these operations.

Kiriau said according to their data a total of 40 shipments were recorded of logs taking out from the province since January to June 2018. The number expects to double-up by this time.

He said that nationally, more logging activities pick-ups in Malaita, Guadalcanal and Choiseul provinces.

He said other provinces do existed with logging operation but not really to that much of the mentioned three provinces.

He said at the moment logging scoped the highest revenue government can collect in the country.

However, he said government’s proposal to scale down on logging by 2020 will be a blow for the country if they’re not considering major investments to take the place of logging.

Luaniua community without health centre for 2 years

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0
Luaniua incomplete health centre.

BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO

Luaniua incomplete health centre.

LUANIUA one of the main villages in Lord Howe has been without a health centre for almost two years, it is reported.

This has been one of the reasons for the many deaths which have occurred during that period.

In an exclusive interview with a former chairman of Luaniua’s health committee, David Kepangi, he said the lack of a health centre was caused by funds being misused by their leaders.

Kepangi said throughout the past two years, they have had to rely on whatever little help they could get from neighbouring Pelau.

But, even this help from their sister community is not sufficient to meet the health and medical demands for the whole of Luaniua.

Kepangi adds that to this day, this problem remains unsolved by their leaders.

“Hence I hereby call on the responsible authorities, the Malaita provincial government health centre and our leaders to consider the importance of health services for our case as rural and remote settlers and provide us with proper health centre with medical drugs and facilities, real doctors and qualified health workers.

“As this lack of healthcare access is so bad in our community that people die from simple disease that can be cured with ordinary pills,” said Kepangi.

He asks how much longer will the people of Luaniua have to wait to have a proper health centre established in their community.

It is understood that Luaniua community is being serviced by an incomplete health centre which was constructed two years ago.

Moli science lab project delay

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

THREE years now and Moli Secondary School’s Science Lab project is still awaiting to be completed at Northwest Choiseul.

Over this delay, the Chairman of Moli Secondary School Mr Anthony Telovae raises serious concern as they would like to see the project now completed in order to assist boosting the level of education for their children in the school subject area of science.

“I make a strong appeal to the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development (MEHRD) to quickly assist in funding the remaining part of the project without delay as the contractor is still patiently waiting for the project’s materials,” said Mr Telovae.

Lord Howe people’s eyes opened to CDF

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Joy Abia legal officer of Transparency Solomon Islands (TSI) who was part of the CDF information sharing in Lord Howe.

BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO

Joy Abia legal officer of Transparency Solomon Islands (TSI) who was part of the CDF information sharing in Lord Howe.

THE people of Lord Howe can now say they know of the government’s constituency development fund (CDF) and what they expect from it.

A community awareness run by the Transparency Solomon Islands (TSI) last week at the villages of Luaniua and Pelau has been labelled an eye opener for the rural people of Lord Howe.

During the awareness, the people of Lord Howe were informed of their entitlement to benefit from the Fund.

They were also taught that this money is public money hence they have all the right to know how this money is used and spent in terms of constituency developments.

Executive Director of TSI Ruth Liloqula said it is essential to properly inform citizens about CDF because there is a need to address the problem of inequality in resource distributions within all constituencies.

Liloqula voiced that this has led to the introduction of sharing CDF information to help solve this inequality issues and also for citizens to know and ask on the whereabouts of the CDF.

She also adds by encouraging community members to participate in community development as well as having confident in monitoring this Fund.

“With this I encouraged you (community members) to participate in community developments, democratic processes and also monitor where funds being used because it’s a public money collected from taxes,” she said.

Chief Peter Kalili on behalf of the people of Lord Howe said the information on CDF shared has been an eye opener for Lord Howe communities.

Kalili said with this information they will able to assess the role of CDF in achieving equitable distribution of resources to constituencies.

Lord Howe community members participated on CDF information session

French company to supply cable for SI undersea cable project

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Undersea cable

By Alfred Sasako

 

A French company is believed to have won the contract to supply fibre optic cable for the joint Papua New Guinea – Solomon Islands’ multi-million dollar undersea cable project, it was revealed this week.

The company which remains unnamed won the bid over two other rivals, including an American firm.

“It (the French company) has begun manufacturing the cables,” an insider told Island Sun earlier this week. It is not clear how long this part of the project would take.

China’s telco giant, Huawei initially won the multi-million dollar project, but Solomon Islands was forced to drop the Chinese company after Australia intervened.

Australia’s federal government instead selected Vocus to conduct the initial stages of the new undersea cable project in the South Pacific that will connect the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea with Australia.

The Department of Foreign Affairs signed a AU$2.8 million deal with the Australian telco company in January this year, allowing the company to conduct a scoping study for the design, construction and procurement of the submarine cable system.

The project will connect the major islands of the Solomons and PNG with Australia via a 4000-plus kilometre fibre optic cable, replacing each country’s reliance on old, unstable and expensive technologies, the Australian government said at the time.

The Solomon Islands currently has its telco needs wholly served by satellite, while PNG uses a low capacity cable that is nearing its end of life.

The study would last for up to three months and included consultation with the governments of the Solomon Islands and PNG and the commencement of permitting, Vocus said in a statement at the time.

It was expected to lead to the “rollout of a cable system on behalf of the Australian Government commencing in 2018”.

The cable project, which originally covered only the Solomons, was planned to be constructed by Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.

But that deal had come up against stiff opposition from the Australian government, who remain concerned about Huawei’s alleged links to the Chinese government and were worried about the possibility of a backdoor into Australia’s telecommunications network

The same concerns led to Huawei being blocked from bidding for work on Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) back in 2012.

In November last year, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill came to an agreement on the sidelines of the 2017 APEC Forum to lay a new cable between Port Moresby and Australia, while Australia continued discussions with the Solomon Islands government about “laying a similar undersea cable”.

“Both Papua New Guinea and Australia are committed to working with Solomon Islands to lay the undersea cables at the same time, allowing Solomon Islands to reap the same economic and development benefits of fast and reliable telecommunications,” Turnbull said then.

“We think that this will incur less debt. We will be doing a scoping study, and that scoping study and the financing for that scoping study will come out of our overseas development assistance,” a senior government minister said.

Solomon Islands government officials have now confirmed that security concerns were merely used by Canberra as an alibi.

“The real reason is economic rather than security. Australia does not want Solomon Islands to have direct access to China’s economic boom,” one official said recently.

A especially equipped ship laying cable on a similar project

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