BY INDY MAEALASIA

THE United Arab Emirates (UAE) is seeking to sign a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, known as SEPA, with the Pacific Islands Forum countries.

Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele voiced his support for the proposal following his return from the UAE on Sunday.

Manele noted that the Solomon Islands, together with Fiji and Papua New Guinea, will lead consultations with PIF countries at the upcoming Ministers of Trade Meeting to convene in Fiji, in two weeks’ time.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade will be our lead ministry,” Manele explained.

 “I will be speaking with the minister to ensure our people with expertise in these areas, including the Director of Trade, our heads of missions in Suva and Beijing, are involved in the process. Our goal is to expedite the completion of the SEPA, which we aim to sign during the Forum meeting in Honiara this September.”

Manele also mentioned that work is ongoing on the Solomon Islands-United Arab Emirates agreement, which will be incorporated into the SEPA.

This agreement, too, is expected to be signed at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in September.

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BY INDY MAEALASIA

THE United Arab Emirates (UAE) is seeking to strengthen its relationship with the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) by becoming a Post-Forum Dialogue Partner.

Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele shared the news with local media upon his return from the UAE on Sunday, stating;

“The United Arab Emirates wishes to become a Post-Forum Dialogue Partner. They are becoming a significant player in the Pacific region.”

As the incoming host and chair of the Forum, Manele assured the UAE that the government would carefully consider their request.

“..we will try to see the Forum process dealing with this can be expedited to ensure the forum can make decisions on which countries to be admitted as Dialogue Partners,” Manele said.

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BY JOHN HOUANIHAU

The Prime Minister has said there is nothing sinister about the redesignation of Dr Jimmie Rodgers and the appointment of Dr Melchoir Mataki to the office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (OPMC) as the new SPM.

Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele clarified the issue after his return from Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Sunday.

Dr Jimmie Rodgers was appointed as Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Special Duties while Dr Melchoir Mataki was appointed as the new Secretary to the Prime Minister (SPM).

“There is nothing sinister about the redesignation of Dr Jimmie Rodgers as Secretary to Prime Minister Special Duties and the appointment of Dr Mataki to the OPMC as the new Secretary to the Prime Minister.

He told local media on Sunday that having an SPM and SPM Special Duties is not new and will ensure the OPMC is enhanced.

“This arrangement already existed at OPMC and had been used before, and I believe with the transformative agenda the GNUT government wants to drive, we need to reactivate this structure to ensure the capacity of OPMC as the coordinating ministry of the government is enhanced,’’ said Manele.

Manele said that the role of the Office of the Secretary to Prime Minister has many additional responsibilities to the usual SPM role since taking on that role more than six years ago to date.

He said that it is therefore important to revert the SPM role to what it is contracted to deliver and that other important areas be addressed through the reactivation of the SPM Special Duties role.

He said that the additional responsibilities of SPM, (Dr Jimmy Rogers), over the past six years, including leading the country’s efforts to successfully host the Pacific Games, chairing the National Provident fun, leading the broader coordination of the country’s Ministry of Health response during the COVID-19 pandemic, assisting in the country’s during the 2021 riot, assisting in the securing of financing for the first-ever joint elections and mobilising funding to support the Ministry of Finance both externally and domestically to name a few.

“Dr Jimmy stayed on this year at my request as Prime Minister,’’ said Manele.

“Sir Jimmy agreed to remain in 2025, but he requested that I consider appointing a new SPM to take on the normal role of the SPM so he can focus on other priorities and transformational agenda that this government wishes to drive and deliver which are outside the scope of the SPM’s core role.

“These roles include completing the audit process for the 2023 Pacific Games and having a table in Parliament, assisting in the arrangements and securing of finances to host international and regional events in 2025.

He said that Jimmy is very familiar with the forum meetings from his time at SPC and will work to ensure the meetings are resourced and convened successfully.

“Sir Jimmy will also focus on special projects such as the institutional houses for the heads of the three arms of government, the Prime Minister, Speaker of National Parliament and the Chief Justice, the design and building of the new OPMC headquarters building and continuing to support MOFT and the Ministry of National Planning and Development Coordination in mobilising resources for the government,’’ said Manele.

“Rodgers will also assist in internal government initiatives and coordination with other ministries. The new SPM will be the accounting officer for the OPMC similar to all PSS in all other ministries,’’ said Manele.

He said that the SPM’s special duties will focus on the areas outside of the SPM’s core role to ensure these are coordinated and implemented according to the government’s wishes.

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BY IRWIN ANGIKI

The United Kingdom will continue to help Solomon Islands’ democratic institutions – parliament and media, UK’s new High Commissioner has said.

One important area is enhancing information flow from parliament to the people of Solomon Islands. This is where media comes in.

The UK is supporting the initiative to better connect parliament with media, a relationship which is projected to help public better access information about its parliament.

A parliament-media workshop on Tuesday has set the pathway towards this.

UK High Commissioner to Solomon Islands His Excellency Paul Turner, opening the workshop reiterated the UK’s willingness to help the country’s democracy through helping its parliament and media.

“We all see the news. We see how democracy is under threat in so many parts of the world today. Popularism, authoritarianism, lies, more lies from both political leaders and social media.

“More than ever, ensuring a healthy, challenging, positive dynamic between the two foundations of our societies – the media and parliament – is crucial.

“A vibrant media is a sign of a healthy society – a society that is at ease with itself, that is able to investigate and report on all kinds of stories, one that can both challenge and reflect on matters in the political arena,” Mr Turner said.

Turner highlighted the importance of parliament officials having a working relations with media for the sake of public better accessing information from their parliament.

“Our job in this workshop is to equip and prepare you as parliamentary officials to be able to flourish in such an environment – to manage the flow of information and sharpen your skills in interacting with the media and ultimately with the public.

“The vision I have for Solomons is – a country where the media can hold its politicians and public institutions to account and where our parliamentarians can hold the government – the Executive – to account.

“Your role is crucial as parliamentarians – enabling the flow of information to the media and public in a clear, timely and professional manner. The workshop will help you in fulfilling those responsibilities,” Turner said.

Themed “Effective media platforms for parliament officials” the workshop brought together officials from various offices within Parliament and journalists/ editors from various media outlets.

The workshop was funded by the United Kingdom’s Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) and BBC Media Action.

This support follows a recent WFD-funded learning trip of three MPs and parliament staff to the UK, which has been dubbed a success.

Testifying to the positive exposure the trip gave them, MP Rick Fuo’o said:

“While I was there, I had to opportunity to be invited to the parliament to witness the questioning of the Prime Minister. What really surprised me is that it was not just the opposition doing the questioning, but the Ministers and Backbenchers of the ruling government were also questioning the prime minister.”

The trip was part of WFD’s partnership with the Solomon Islands parliament which began in 2022 and aimed at “strengthening parliamentary profile, practices and procedures towards enhanced democratic capacity and resilience”.

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BY IRWIN ANGIKI

People’s access to information from Parliament is projected to improve following an icebreaker workshop between parliament officials and media Tuesday this week.

Funded by the United Kingdom’s Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) and BBC Media Action the workshop aimed to kick start working relations between parliament and media towards easier flow of information from parliament to public.

Themed “Effective media platforms for parliament officials” the workshop brought together officials from various offices within Parliament and journalists/ editors from various media outlets.

Parliamentary staff and media personnel shared their experiences in past engagements and drew up suggestions on how to better communicate information, especially from parliament to media, which can then be released for public consumption.

Parliament is still without a communication strategy despite plans to establish one, and the workshop signals the pathway towards creating one.

Clerk to Parliament Jefferson Halle in his address to the workshop underlined his office’s desire to have a communication strategy in place through which factual and accurate information can reach the people via media platforms.

“There is a synergy between parliament staff and media – providing accurate information.

“Throughout today we can help each other, parliament providing the accurate information and assist journalists in understanding the complex parliament procedures, provide access to relevant documents.

“This enhances public engagement by working together to make sure parliamentary information is accessible to public.

“One outcome anticipated from this workshop is for us to develop our own communication strategy so that we can relate well with the media fraternity.

“As the UK ambassador has said, it works well for the governed and not the governor, it is for the information of public and communities and that relation between parliament staff and media is crucial to ensure accurate information is disseminated to public,” Clerk Halle said.

He adds that this will also ensure that public are shielded from misinformation which is rife in this heavily digitalised era.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Opening the workshop, High Commissioner for the United Kingdom His Excellency Paul Turner said his country is pleased to assist Solomon Islands’ parliament by supporting its effort to improve its communication strategy and have a workable partnership with the media.

“Our job in this workshop is to equip and prepare you as parliamentary officials to be able to flourish in such an environment – to manage the flow of information and sharpen your skills in interacting with the media and ultimately with the public.

“The vision I have for Solomons is – a country where the media can hold its politicians and public institutions to account and where our parliamentarians can hold the government – the Executive – to account.

“We, the UK are at the forefront working on both those aspects – the media and the parliamentarians.

“We are doing this through our partnerships with the BBC Media Action and the Westminster Foundation. It is a source of immense pride for us.

“And, so today we bring together these two foundations of the country – the media and the Parliament – the foundations of any democratic society.

“Your role is crucial as parliamentarians – enabling the flow of information to the media and public in a clear, timely and professional manner. The workshop will help you in fulfilling those responsibilities,” Mr Turner said.

Two of the country’s senior journalists, Robert Iroga and Georgina Kekea facilitated the workshop along with parliament media’s director (acting) – chief media officer Duane Baiabe.

Ms Kekea in an interview after the workshop said the workshop is a milestone for public, parliament and media.

“After all this, public will better access information from parliament, media can easily access information from parliament to publish to public, and our parliament’s transparency and accountability is boosted.

“Importantly, after this workshop, parliament will come up with its communication strategy to partner with media to share information.”

The workshop was funded by WFD and BBC Media Action, both institutions supported by the government of the UK, and Solomon Islands’ National Parliament.

Media participants included Island Sun Newspaper, Tavuli News Online, SBM Online, Solomon Star Newspaper, Sunday Isles and SIBC.

Parliament officials attending included reps from the Opposition Office, parliament media, library, admin, accounts, Hansard and record, and security.

The workshop was held at one of the Heritage Park hotel conference rooms.

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