BY SAMIE WAIKORI

in Auki

LAULANA bridge in Central Kwara’ae is one of the bridges along the south-road direction.

It has been observed to be neglected by authorities for a long time, according to locals.

Mr Clyde Maelifo’oa from Ratefasu village told Island Sun Auki yesterday that amongst other bridges along the south-road going as far as West Are’are, Laulana Bridge was the first bridge to be built.

However, he said with the current status of the bridge, Laulana Bridge is the only timber-bridge while the rest are permanently constructed with iron.

“Anyway the point here is not about which bridge was first constructed and which is least.

“The status of the bridge is what really matter. With just only timber the bridge was made, one thing identified was the bridge requires frequent maintenance.

“Adding to that since the bridge was established, more than 10 traffic accidents happen as a result of the poor condition of the bridge,” Maelifo’oa said.

He said the bridge has no rail and when it rains, it is often slippery making it very easy for accidents.

Maelifo’oa said in 2014 an incident happened and the bridge was burned down.

He said in the following year, MID through Ministry of Works under Malaita province rebuilt the bridge.

“During that time there was a heat-up between the people in the area and the two government agencies to permanently constructing the bridge.

“The people want the bridge to be permanently built, but the government says no, the bridge would only temporarily build for the need of flow of transport and later it will permanently build.

“They promised that in 2016 they will build the permanent bridge for Laulana as the people in the area want,” he said.

Maelifo’oa said since then nothing happened until today as their promise to permanently build the bridge is just a big liar.

Thus, he assured both the province and national government that the people still waiting and they need to know whether the government will still build the bridge or not.

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

in Auki

MEMBERS of the Solomon Islands Forest Resources Owners Association (SIFROA) are questioning the national government (SIDCCG) on the status of their proposal.

SIFROA, a body of resource-extractive licence holders, made the query following a proposal given to the former national government, the DCCG in 2017 for assistance.

A member of the association, Mr Peter Waikiri said during the Sogavare-led government, SIFROA submitted a proposal in an interest of dialogue between the PMO and SIFROA executive.

Adding that the area surrounding the proposal is on protecting the resource owners’ interest in the logging industry in the country.

He said the aim of the proposal for dialogue includes, 1) Forest Sustainable Development (resource replenishment), 2) Forest Improvement Benefit Determination and Product Development (profit sharing and downstream processing).

3) Forest Markets (pricing) and Marketing Development (transparent log marketing enactment) and 4) Economic Opportunity Conversion and Creation (allied private sector oriented growth).

According to a copy of the proposal obtained by this paper, SIFROA considers these areas; timber (forestry) Industry, round log economy and SI national forestry act.

Another area of great concern is round log business in SI which covers areas of milling quota, reforestation levies/fees, profit sharing arrangement and markets and marketing.

The alarm is SFA was a stake holder of the logging industry in the country, where it exists as a body coordinating the business interest of all logging contractors.

“They own the money and machineries. Because of this SFA is a one-way traffic that promotes and protects the interest of the industry’s one key player only.

“Their goals are clear which purely profit driven. They move in, get the money, sit down, but one day they will move out.

“We glad for them, however their national status as offshore investors assures that one day they will leave with all wealth they accumulated from the industry,” said the proposal.

The statement also said that the welfare and rights of Forest Resource Owners were not reflected in SFA and were downplayed ever since. That left resource owners silently crying in their heart and had lived this for ages.

It was with these understanding that SIFROA initiated the association and intended for an integral timber industry reform and rescue strategy that will belongs to resource owners nationwide.

However, Waikiri appealed upon the national government for consideration on the proposal, so they can work toward protecting the interest of resource owners in logging industry in the country.

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

SOLOMON Island Postal Corporation can only proceed with the new mobile wallet service project with commitment from Funding Agencies.

This was expressed in the corporation’s report which voices that at the moment, they lack funds and expertise for technical and infrastructure development and digital service integration.

Meanwhile, Solomon Post mentions that there is ongoing milestone monitoring for each project team to ensure that their schedule is being met and budgetary overruns are avoided.

“Solomon Islands Postal Corporation procurement guidelines will be followed and ongoing system reporting will be available. Supplier liaison will occur with the project team while initial training and integration assistance will be made available from the supplier”, the report said.

Moreover, Solomon Post stressed that the underpinnings of the project rely on customer registration, agent and merchant recruitment, transaction volume, tariffs and service offering.

Additionally stated is that monitoring of the above areas and having a compliant system implementation will determine the overall success of the digitization and integration of the mobile wallet service within the Solomon Islands Postal Corporation.

The Solomon Post report furthers that a few areas of concern, specifically include digital services, customer retention and acquisition, continuing financial viability of the Solomon Islands Postal Corporation, financial inclusion and international remittances and money transfers.

“By addressing these areas of concern Solomon Islands Postal Corporation will be able to digitize services that will restore the relevance of the postal service, achieve our core business objectives, restore profitability and provide new services to the people of the Solomon Islands”, the report said.

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

THE new mobile wallet system Solomon Post will establish is not only feasible but viable.

This is according to the local corporation’s new mobile wallet report which indicates factors that make the new payment system possible and commercially scalable.

Speaking of the former, Solomon Post sees the new service as a possible solution given that Bibimoney will be on board providing support in areas of technical setup support, assistance with regulatory and compliance procedures, bespoke branding support, staff training, marketing strategy development, deployment support, in-country server and platform and SIM-Skin technology for each customer.

Moreover, as for the latter, the report refers to the solution as commercially scalable because it is only the interoperable and scalable solution that Solomon Post has been able to identify.

“Because the Solomon Islands Postal Corporation wallet is fully interoperable, does not rely on internet and works on any phone, means that scaling up and expanding the Solomon Islands Postal Corporation wallet network may happen in a much shorter time frame than projected”, said the report.

Further noted is that the project will be managed by a project team comprising of a project manager, overall project manager, a technical team, training and marketing team and a deployment team.

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

COMMUNITIES of Vorvoru in Tutu Zone at Varisi Lavata Ward 12, Northwest Choiseul, are badly affected from food shortage caused by the recent stormy weather experienced.

According to report from Mr Nerio Ulemiki the media coordinator for Christ the King Parish at Voruvoru, the heavy rain caused landslides and floods destroying their local food gardens leaving hundreds of people hungry.

“The locals affected are now calling on the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) to advice the Choiseul Provincial Disaster Committee at Taro to assess the affected area and send relief supplies,” said Mr Ulemiki.

He elaborated that Tutu Zone communities are also calling on their good MP for food assistance during this current situation faced.

Attempt to reach the Choiseul Provincial Disaster Committee at Taro for comment was not possible yesterday.

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

COMMUNITIES of Northwest Choiseul commend the Principal of Choiseul Bay Provincial Secondary School (PSS) for improvement standard shown on teaching students.

According to Mr Nerio Ulemiki the media coordinator for Christ the King Parish at Voruvoru reporting, Mr Collin Ruqebatu and his hardworking Staff have helped upgraded the education level of teaching in the Premier school of the province.

“Their effort is a bonus to uplifting the quality of education in Choiseul,” said Mr Ulemiki.

Choiseul Bay PSS currently has 11 Degree and Diploma qualified teachers serving.

The infrastructure development of the school from report is also bonus to provide a good learning environment.

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

DATA collected at Western Province by a research team from Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau under the Tsunami, Earthquake and Cyclone Early Warning system (TEC) program is very important information nationally and globally.

This was expressed by Mr Yu-Ting Kuo, who is part of the research team and a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sincia in Taiwan.

In relation, he stressed that in the southern part of Solomon Islands, there is a large ocean trench which in geology is a natural boundary located between two crustal plates. More or so, this movement occurs when a continental plate converges or intersects with an oceanic plate forming a subduction zone which then creates a trench between the plates.

Mr Kuo adds that many earthquakes occur on this trench, noting that in 2007 in the southern part of the country, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 occurred.

In this regard, he mentioned that Simbo is on the footwall just two sides of the subduction zone which is something that is quite rare globally.

“Simbo is on the footwall, just two sides of the subduction. In the global, very less, almost no two islands can besides the subduction. So this part is very important because the subduction is very active”, Mr Kuo said.

He furthers that utilizing the data they collect to help estimate the probability of whether or not an earthquake is likely to occur is the final stage they want to try to reach.

“That’s the final and very important point we want to try but before that we still have many things to figure at like how it happens”, Mr Kuo said.