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3rd China Medical Team conducts free clinic in Rennell and Bellona province

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By JOHN HOUANIHAU

The 3rd China Medical Team (CMT) in the Solomon Islands conducted a five-day free medical clinic in Rennell and Bellona Province from February 9-13, following an invitation from the provincial government.

This marked the CMT’s first visit to Rennell and Bellona and the ninth province they have served since 2022. With this visit, the team has now provided medical services across all nine provinces of the Solomon Islands.

The initiative was warmly welcomed by the local government and residents.

The medical team comprised six doctors: Team Leader Dr. Mu Mao, Urologist Dr. Leon Zhong, Cardiologist Dr. Wei Bo, Nephrologist Dr. Tang Yinqian, Acupuncturist Dr. Gary Xu, and Dr. Daniel Li.

With support from local medical personnel, the CMT conducted a three-day free clinic at Tigoa Mini Hospital, treating over 300 patients.

Team Leader Dr. Mu Mao expressed his honor in visiting the province, stating, “We are committed to providing high-quality healthcare to the people of Rennell and Bellona. This mission brings specialized medical services, including acupuncture, cardiology, nephrology, and urology. We believe that through this initiative, both sides will strengthen mutual understanding and deepen the friendship between the peoples of China and the Solomon Islands.”

The free clinics, held from February 10-12 at Tigoa Mini Hospital, offered consultations in acupuncture, cardiology, nephrology, and urology. Local nurses were also invited to assist in medical activities.

The specialized services provided by the Chinese doctors were well received, and the CMT earned high praise from the local community.

Through continued efforts, the team aims to further strengthen the bond of friendship between China and the Solomon Islands.

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Standing together in solidarity: Three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

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Op-ed by the Ambassador of the European Union to the Pacific, HE Barbara Plinkert

Today is a sad day.

Yet another year has passed by since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

This brutal and unprovoked aggression threatens the rules-based international order, the UN Charter and the very basic principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The implications of a nuclear power carrying out wars of conquest affect the entire global community.

If we let one country invade another sovereign country and annex its territory, what example does that set?

Who could be next?

As we mark three years since Russia started its full-scale aggression against Ukraine, it is important to reflect not only on the devastating impacts of this conflict in Europe but also on its far-reaching consequences across the Pacific region.

Ukraine is part of Europe.

But defending the principle of sovereignty is a collective task.

Sovereignty and territorial integrity are the cornerstone of international order.

Russia wages a neo-colonial, imperialist war against a sovereign member of the international community, breaking international law, including the UN Charter.

The war has shown us that our world is interconnected in unexpected ways; the repercussions of conflict in one region resonate far beyond its borders.

The invasion has unleashed a wave of humanitarian, economic, and geopolitical challenges that impact even those of us thousands of miles away from the battlegrounds.

The war has disrupted global supply chains, leading to rising costs for essential goods and services.

Pacific island nations, often reliant on imports for food, fuel, and other critical resources, have felt the strain of increased prices and reduced availability.

Vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters, already pressing issues for the Pacific, has been exacerbated by the destructive consequences of global conflict.

The EU has worked with its Pacific and other partners to mitigate those effects.

But only when peace is restored in Ukraine, can the path to normalisation begin.

Despite these challenges, what stands out is the unwavering support from the Pacific Island Countries for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This support reflects a shared commitment to the principles of international law, peace, and the fundamental rights of nations to determine their own destinies.

I extend my deepest gratitude to the Pacific leaders and citizens across the Pacific region who have voiced their opposition to the aggression that has brought so much suffering to the people of Ukraine.

I would like to convey a heartfelt thank you to all our Pacific Partners that have stood up for Ukraine, for the international rules-based order and for the principle of sovereignty, bilaterally and in international fora.

The EU will continue to stand up for Ukraine whatever it takes.

The existence of Ukraine as we know it is at stake.

The EU has been stepping up on security and defence and will continue to do so.

We will stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in negotiations for peace, fully assuming our responsibilities for Ukraine as a future member of the European Union.

On this February 24, we call on our Pacific Partners to continue acting in a spirit of solidarity with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.

The Russian threat goes beyond Ukraine.

Together we need to make sure that this aggression fails and international order prevails, for the sake of the sovereignty of all our respective countries, for now and in the future.

The alternative is a world where might makes right.

We cannot leave this legacy to our children.

Fake scholarship case adjourns for March 6

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BY ROMINAH FAKA

The case of a man accused of fraudulently getting money from students promising them scholarships has adjourned further for March 6 for mention.

Donald Keso is accused of obtaining money from students with the fake promise of giving them Solomon Islands Government Scholarships (SIG) awards.

The matter was heard in court on Wednesday this week where prosecution informed court that police made an attempt to see the accused’s surety but were informed that the surety was in Malaita and will be back at the end of this week.

Police also said the accused’s father had told them that the accused was in Auki.

Court suspended the matter and ordered prosecution to update a summon and serve it to police. The Central police are to communicate with Auki police to serve the summon on the accused.

Donald Keso is charged with three counts of obtaining money by false pretence. He had pleaded not guilty to the counts

Prosecution alleged that Keso obtained money from students with a fake promise of giving them Solomon Islands Government (SIG) Scholarship awards.

It was further alleged that on different dates in March and April 2022, Keso lied to the complainants that he was working as an agent for the National Training Unit (NTU).

He also promised the complainants that if they produced their required documents and gave him sum of $1000, he would place their names on the Solomon Islands Government scholarship (SIG).

Upon hearing the promises, two of the complainants gave Keso $1000 each while one allegedly gave Keso $2,000 for himself and his sister.

Keso then told the victims that he would call them to collect their offer letter when their names were listed for the scholarships.

The complainants waited for a response from Keso but nothing happened.

One of them then went to the NTU office and enquired if a person by the name of Donald

Keso worked at SITESA and in response, a receptionist allegedly told him that a senior female staff member that Donald Keso used to work for had already resigned.

The complainants were students of the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) at that time of the offence.

Keso was later arrested by the police after the three complainants lodged their complaints on February 18, 2023.

ODPP act for State and Emy Rusi of PSO represent the accused Donald Keso.

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Assault case adjourned for Feb 28

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BY ROMINAH FAKA

The case of a man accused of assault causing bodily harm has been adjourned for February 28.

The matter of James Sugegeo was mentioned in court yesterday and further suspended for defence to made additional submissions on a self-defence issue.

Yesterday defence was to file its submission in court on the additional submissions of self-defence raised by court in previous occasion.

However, the duty lawyer informed court with instructions from the defence counsel in carriage of the file, that she was in a trial and sought adjournment to Friday next week to file the additional submissions.

The matter was adjourned and bail for the defendant was extended.

James Sugegeo is charged with one count of assault causing bodily harm and pleaded guilty to the charge.

Facts of the case say Sugegeo is the uncle of the victim.

He lived with the victim and her mother at Red Label Area at White River.

On 10th of November 2024, victim and her mother and father were at Red Label area, White River at a fundraising program.

The accused was drinking Kwaso and an argument broke out between the victim and the accused.

The accused whom under the influence of the alcohol cannot control himself, he gets up and tackle the victim to the ground, whilst on the ground, he took out a kitchen knife from his bag and stab the victim right thighs and his right-side ribs.

The accused then escaped from the victim when the victim mother shouted at them and rushed into her daughter rescue.

The mother rushed the victim to National Referral Hospital (NRH).

Jeremy Oiofa of Office of Public Prosecution act for crown and Delilah Kukura Fagani of PSO for defendant.

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Drug export case returns in court Feb 28

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BY ROMINAH FAKA

The trial into the case of two people accused of exporting prohibited drugs commenced on Wednesday this week in Magistrate Court before Deputy Chief Magistrate Ricky Iomea.

Yesterday prosecution closed its case after calling six witnesses.

The defendants are Etekia Kauai and Beatrice Umea.

Defence informed court yesterday that its clients have opted to remain silent without calling any witness.

The matter was adjourned to February 28 for defence to file its closing submissions. Bail for both accused was extended.

Kauai and Umea are charged jointly with one count of attempting to export a dangerous drug under the Dangerous Drugs Act. The two defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge.

It was alleged on June 19, 2019 at the Henderson International Airport, the accused packed eight packets of marijuana inside a speaker in 20cm by 20 cm plastic bags.

It was taken to the airport, where accused Umea was on check-in duty for Solomon Airlines.

It was further alleged that Kauai took the package to Umea and she accepted the package as unaccompanied luggage, but tagged the package to a passenger whom she had already checked in.

When the package went through the screening, suspicious arose, the speaker was unscrewed and the packets of Marijuana were found, before it was loaded onto the flight.

Steward Tonowane acts for the Crown and Jennifer Happilyn for Umea Delilah and Kukura Fagani for Etekia Kauai.

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OWNERSHIP HANDOVER

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SINPF and O’Neill Remington Group now co-owners of King Solomon Hotel

By Loretta B Manele

Solomon Islands National Provident Fund and the O’Neill Remington Group from Papua New Guinea are officially the new co-owners of King Solomon Hotel.

Manasseh Sogavare, minister for the Ministry of Finance and Treasury highlighted this at the handing over ceremony of the hotel which was held at the hotel yesterday.

He said the two parties have signed a joint venture agreement to be the co-owners of the hotel in which SINPF owns 55 percent and O’Neill Remington Group 45 percent.

Sogavare expressed that the new hotel will help transform the skyline of our national capital.

“It will provide one additional hub for tourists and business visitors to our country and provide a home away from home for ordinary Solomon Islanders travelling from our provinces to Honiara.”

Sogavare pointed out that the majority share is owned by members of the Solomon Islands National Poverty Fund, the people of Solomon Islands.

He said this will be a symbol of national unity in our country.

Peter O’Neill of O’Neill Remington Group also shared his remarks at the occasion.

He said hotels are building blocks for tourism industry in any country and he is very certain that this is not going to be their only investment in this sector in Solomon Islands.

O’Neill expressed that they are also looking forward to other ventures.

“We have been able to travel in your lovely country over the last few weeks and we have witnessed some of the most exotic and beautiful places in the world.

I am certain that the future for tourism industry in this country is very bright and we look forward to being a very strong partner in that.”

Jimmy Rodgers, Chairman of SINPF board also took the opportunity to share their plans for the new hotel.

He said they are hoping to have five suites to help hotels to accommodate leaders who will be in the country for the forum leaders meeting.

Rodgers stated that they will also go into retaining operation of all the rooms and have them transformed whilst increasing the workforce at the hotel.

Meanwhile, it is understood that the SINPF and O’Neill Remington Group will employ all former 69 employees of the hotel.

Rodgers mentioned that this is the third hotel SINPF has invested in.

“This is the third hotel, because we have a share in the resort in Papua New Guinea. So, we are now slowly growing that footprint.”

Susan Kennedy, former King Solomon Hotel owner congratulated SINPF and O’Neill Remington Group on acquiring the hotel.

“My family and I are delighted to extend our sincerest congratulations to you on the successful acquisition of the King Solomon Hotel. This milestone marks the combination of many years of negotiations but as they say all good things come to those who wait.”

Kennedy said they are confident that under experienced leadership, the hotel will be ushered into a new era of excellence in tourism and hospitality in Solomon Islands.

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PM shares tourism vision at WG-Summit

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Manele is the MP elect for Hograno-Katova-Kia-Havulei, Isabel Province.Photo supplied.

BY JOHN HOUANIHAU

Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele has shared the GNUT’s vision for the tourism industry at the recent World Government Summit held in Dubai.

The theme for this year’s summit is Shaping Future Governments.

Speaking to local media after his return on Sunday Manele said in his remarks at the tourism roundtable, that he shares the government’s vision for tourism in the coming decades to foster a model of tourism that ensures environmental sustainability, cultural preservation and community empowerment while driving economic growth.

He said he also highlighted the GNUT 2035 goals to increase visitor arrivals to 100,000 per annum, secondly, boost tourism’s contributions contribution to GDP, thirdly increase employment opportunities for local Solomon Islanders in the tourism sector, expand and improve quality room inventory and build a highly trained and skilled tourism workforce.

He said that he also further highlighted to partners present that to achieve these targets the government has prioritised six pillars of interventions.

He said that the six pillars are an investment in infrastructure and connectivity, sustainable tourism development, destination marketing and promotion, regulatory and policy reforms, public-private partnerships and international collaboration and invite global partnership and investment.

He said that more than 30 heads of state and governments, over 80 international organisations, 140 government delegations, and 6,000 participants, including leading global experts, attended the summit.

He said that the third edition of the WGS focused on six key themes including effective governance and accountability, financing the future and the global economy, climate crisis mitigation, and resilient cities, human-centric futures and capacity building, global health transformations and emerging frontiers and the future.

PM Manele said that addressing various aspects of these themes were eight plenary sessions with each plenary covering between four to six topics and speakers with 21 forums with each forum covering six to eight different topics presented by multiple speakers.

More than 40 roundtable sessions and multiple dialogue sessions according to PM.

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Summit to focus on sustainable development based on three pillars

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By Loretta B Manele

The upcoming “Honiara Summit 2025: Umi Tugeda Delivering on SDG 14:4 Achieving Sustainable Fisheries” will focus on a sustainable development goal based on three pillars.

Collin Beck, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAET) stressed this during a press conference with the media at the Friendship Hall.

He said these three pillars are economic growth, social development and environment protection all interlinked.

Moreover, Beck stated that over time with our man-made crisis, we have overfished, extracted so much from the ocean.

He added that with the impact of climate change the ocean has gone warm, there is also sea level rise and fish have moved away from certain jurisdictions resulting in the shift of fishing grounds.

Henceforth, Beck highlighted that the summit is nearly like a technical and scientific gathering basically to measure where we are, what we need to do in terms of ensuring we restore depleting fish stocks in different parts of the world, learn from each other, share technology and to share knowledge in terms of doing that.

He emphasized that when it comes to the management of fisheries, we can also make an outreach to other parts of the world to share our experience in terms of how we manage fisheries from a scientific perspective.

Beck said a number of leaders will be attending the summit which begins on Monday 24th at the Friendship Hall.

The summit set for 24th to 27th February is organized by the Solomon Islands government in partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO), the Special Oceans Envoy of the UN Secretary General and Pacific Community (SPC).

It is an international conference on the Sustainable Development Goal 14.4 which is to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

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2025, a year of work: Premier Asilaua

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BY SAMIE WAIKORI

Premier of Malaita province Elijah Asilaua says 2025 is a year of work for the province.

He made the statement, urging Malaitans for synergy to support the implementation of major development projects in the province, this year.

Based on MPG’s policy priority for 2025, Asilaua said the provincial government will further strengthen partnership with national government on major development projects in the province.

“Bina Harbor is one of the priority development projects of my government.

“We have been cooperating with national government and donor partners on the project, and we were pleased to witness its progress,” he said.

Asilaua added Suava Economic Growth Centre, in the northern region, is another priority economic development project of his government.

He furthered that there was also other proposed major development project in the province and his government is supportive of them.

“My government sees the importance of decentralizing development across the province.

“That means, development will not only focus in the central region, but other regions of the province.

“Like, Suava in the northern region, road and wharf projects in Small Malaita and other development projects in MOI and eastern regions,” Asilaua said.

Moreover, he highlighted other important priority infrastructure development projects that are along the pipeline for the province.

“CCECC is currently on the ground to implement the PRC funded sealing project for Auki Road.

“The Japanese funded project for the improvement of Kilu’ufi hospital in Auki. My government also look forward for the 3rd phase of SIRAP program in the province.

“Under the component, European Union will fund the upgrade of Fiu bridge and World Bank will fund the sealing of Kilu’ufi/Dala road.

“This year too, we look forward to the sealing of Auki/Bina Road,” he said.

The premier, on that note, assured the commitment of his government behind these game changing developments.

“Our cooperation is important. As I always said, government cannot do anything by themselves, they depend on its people to achieve these developments.

“In light of that, MPG planned to reach out and consult resource owners and other stakeholders in the province to prepare to support the developments,” he said.

Asilaua said his government, on the other hand, will also continue to partner with national government and donor partners to achieve the development aspiration of the province.

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Building partnerships to implement sustainable fisheries

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By Loretta B Manele

The summit will be about building partnerships to implement sustainable fisheries in the region.

Collin Beck, the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade (MFAET) spoke about this during a press conference with the media.

He was referring to the “Honiara Summit 2025: Umi Tugeda Delivering on SDG 14:4 Achieving Sustainable Fisheries” which will take place from 24th to 25th February at the Friendship Hall.

Beck stressed that the summit is about building partnerships with everyone on we can take corrective measures and share with each other how we can best deal with sustainable fisheries.

He said the summit will be a place where scientists and policy leaders will more or less come together in terms of trying to accelerate implementation on the Sustainable Development Goal 14.4 which is to “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”

Beck emphasized that this summit is important for Solomon Islands and the pacific region.

He mentioned that nearly all our people live close to coastal areas so having this summit means having discussions that relate to our livelihood and our future.

Beck also stated that the second aspect of the summit is to also issue a political declaration of where we are, what we need to do and going forward, the key messages we would like to put out there not only for attention but for action.

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