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Vella retired public servant calls on candidates to address women issues

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Beverly Aaron

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

A retired female public servant has called on candidates to recognise the issues affecting women.

Beverly Aaron of North Vella La Vella constituency has urged candidates to always consider women’s concerns when they come into power.

She emphasised that while the choice ultimately lies with the people, whoever wins should prioritise women’s issues without fail.

Issues affecting women are significant and leaders should not neglect addressing them.

Ms Aaron, who retired a year ago, noted that in her community former MPs had addressed the water issue, but proper sanitation still needs attention.

When asked about her views on women being candidates, she said that any woman aiming to successfully contest the National General Election must understand the issues in rural areas.

Female candidates must invest more time with the people and treat everyone equally to secure victory in the election.

Aaron said in her constituency, putting women into power will take some years as people’s mindsets need to change, while women can contribute to positive change, the mindset of voters must change.

She emphasised the need for cultural and mindset shifts among rural populations before women can achieve success.

She also stressed that even if a capable woman contests but fails to recognise or be kind to the people during her lifetime, rural support will be lacking.

Despite the challenges, she urged voters, especially women, to make informed choices on April 17.

She emphasised that it is the responsibility of everyone in the village to make wise decisions when it comes time to vote.

3 men plead not guilty to multiple counts

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BY ROMINAH FAKA

Three men accused of multiple charges pleaded not guilty at the magistrate court.

Saverio Mate, 25, Lency Raga, 40, John Longatabo, 28, were all charged jointly with two counts of arson and one count of assault causing actual bodily harm.

Prosecution sought seven days’ adjournment for it to complete the Pre-Trial-Conference (PTC) documents.

Court extended the remand warrant for Longatabo and bail for Raga and Mate.

Court instructed the parties to file the PTC before close of business on April 8 before coming back to court on April 9.

Prosecution alleged that on October 12, 2022, the defendants were alleged to be part of a group of men that went and asked compensation from the complainant at Kakalu Village, West Guadalcanal.

They claimed the complainant had stolen their live pig and demanded he gave them some money if not they would return and burn down his house.

Later, the defendants went and set fire to the complainant’s two dwelling houses.

Steward Tonowane of DPP act for the Crown and PSO act for the defendants.

Police applaud peaceful Easter on Malaita

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PPC Malaita, superintendent Lesley Kili.

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

AUKI

Malaita police commander Superintendent Lesley Kili has thanked communities across the province for the peaceful Easter celebration.

Kili made the acknowledgement following zero report of incident and arrest during the Easter weekend.

“The behaviour shown by people in the province illustrated their respect to Easter and that they celebrated it with its true meaning.

“I must thank the people of Malaita, who are in the province for this wonderful behavior and urge them to continue with this good behaviour.

“This is what we should have to treat all events whether religious or public events with respect and honour,” Kili said.

He thanked community leaders and their people for the synergy toward such achievement which had supported police in their work.

Kili on that note called for similar behaviour during the national elections on April 17.

“As known, the country will go to poll on April 17 and I urge Malaitans to continue with the similar good behavior during this national event.

“This is so that the event is administer accordingly and those will participate in it to do so freely without fear of any potential threats,” he said.

PLASTIC-FREE CHAMPION

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Moffat Maeta

Gizo enjoying a clean, sustainable environment 5 years ahead of Honiara on single-use plastics

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

GIZO, the capital of the tourism hub province of Solomon Islands is well into enjoying a single-use plastic-free environment.

Honiara is still getting used to living without single-use plastics, whereas Gizo has been since 2019.

Gizo Market manager Moffet Maeta says Gizo is well into its stride as the country’s champion for environment sustainability.

Mr Maeta said this transformation was solidified with the signing and gazetting of the Regulation on September 1, 2023.

He highlighted that Gizo embarked on the path to ban single-use plastic as early as 2019.

Therefore, when the ban officially took effect last year, people in Gizo and those visiting Gizo were able to comply, he said.

“We had already adjusted to the single-use plastic ban, so the ban posed no significant challenge for us,” Maeta said.

He said while acknowledging that new visitors to Gizo might find the transition unfamiliar, Maeta emphasised the simplicity of complying with the regulation, particularly for local vendors.

“Our vendors have adapted to the new norm. It is just a matter of changing our habits and being mindful when shopping,” Maeta explained.

He calls on Gizo residents and visitors to embrace the practice of bringing their bags when visiting markets and shops.

“Let us all embrace this practice and contribute to preserving the beauty of our environment,” he urged, underlining the importance of individual responsibility in fostering a plastic-free future for Gizo town.

Moreover, the signing and gazetting of the Regulation means that it is now effective as a subsidiary legislation under section 55 of the Environment Act 1998.

The five items listed in the regulation include Plastic shopping bags, Plastic straws, plastic cups, plates and cutleries, polystrofoam takeaway containers, plates and cups and polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) water bottles that contains less than 1.5 litres.

This new regulation is part of a larger effort to reduce the amount of plastic waste that ends ups in our environment. It is important to note as well, that the ban itself is inadequate on its own without the support and participation of stakeholders and the public at large.

According to the Solomon Islands government it believes that it is prudent to start making changes and shift to sustainable alternatives and to ensure that the environment is protected from plastic pollution.

Newly released informative toolkit to boost stakeholders

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BY INDY MAEALASIA

THE recently debuted Solwata Blo Iumi Campaign toolkit is highly anticipated to enhance stakeholder capacity and empower local community participation in sustainable marine resources management.

“This user-friendly toolkit will empower provincial fisheries officers, Community Based organisation reps, and relevant NGOs to effectively spread information” Malaita Fisheries officers, Martin Jasper said

With the continuous negative impacts of climate change and man-made factors on these vital resources, Jasper termed the toolkit a “timely and critical development”

“With the toolkit in hand they(stakeholders) will be well equipped to educate communities about sustainable resource management plans, this will in time contribute to the health and well-being of marine ecosystems” he said.

The informative toolkit consists of a facilitator’s guide, flip-chat and a reader-friendly booklet that comes in English and Pidgin version, illustrations and depict problems and solutions scenarios.

To kick start the launch and the distribution plan, the cChange, Ministry Fisheries Marine Resources(MFMR) and other stakeholders leading the Solwata Blo Iumi Campaign has undergone a workshop on Wednesday 27th-Thursday 28th 

Workshop participant, Apunepara Hamwaora Natural Reasource Association Operation Manager, Reginald Watesau expressed his relief of finally having the toolkit “we now have a standard book which we all can use across the nation or even across the Pacific”

Based on South Malaita, Watesau will be hard at work upon his return “I will be carrying out workshop, in villages, schools and among community elders”.

Watesau has extended his appreciation to Chnage and MFMR and other stakholders for making the toolkit a possibility.

For the first round of distribution, more than 10,000 toolkits are set to be launched and distributed throughout the country.

MILLION DOLLAR BUILDING BREAKS GROUND

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Managing Director AJ Enterprise Ltd, Aron Dawen ZHENG, Deputy Secretary Economics MoFT and SINPF Deputy Chairman David Rupokets during the ground breaking ceremony.

SINPF $81m four-floor commercial building breaks ground

BY NED GAGAHE

SOLOMON Islands National Provident Fund (SINPF) breaks ground for its newest investment million dollar building on Thursday 28 March 2024.

The project, SOLCHO is a four-level commercial building project is the latest SINPF investment in the domestic property market.

A groundbreaking ceremony was organized on Thursday at the project site next to Ombudsman office, Point Cruz attended by SINPF, Chief Executive Officer, Mike Wate, Deputy Chairman of SINPF Board David Rupokets, officials from contractor AJ Enterprise and Deputy Secretary Economics Selwyn Takana of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury (MoFT).

This new commercial property located in the heart of the Honiara CBD is expected to cost around SBD81 million (inclusive of all taxes) and construction is expected to take up to 20 months to complete. It is expected to be handed over to the SINPF Board by AJ Enterprises Limited in November 2025.  

Local contractor AJ Enterprise won that tender to build the SOLCHO Commercial building.   

In his remarks at the ground breaking Chairman of SINPF Board David Rupokets said the project marked ‘yet another milestone in the progress of SINPF Board’s investment in the domestic property investment market.

“Dear distinguished ladies and gentlemen, my sincere thank you for joining us for this ground-breaking ceremony today to commence our new commercial building construction. We appreciate and thank you for your presence here today to witness yet another milestone in the progress of SINPF Board’s investments in our domestic property investment market.

“For a bit of history, this location where we are now has a long rich history as it was formerly owned and hosted the former iconic government’s owned Solomon Islands Housing Authority Head Office. This asset is part of the sales and purchase agreement settled between the Solomon Islands Government and the SINPF Board when the SINPF Board bought the entity in 2009.

“Our investment journey to develop this commercial site commenced in 2017 with the Board’s endorsement and Minister of Finance approvals secured in 2018. The project was put on hold when the Board won the public tender to construct a residential accommodation unit for the Commonwealth Government of Australia at the Hibiscus Apartment grounds.

“With the advance progress of the apartments’ construction (with the 1st phase of the Hibiscus development expected to be completed in December 2024), the Board is now in a position to commence the construction of this new modern 4 level commercial building.

“This new property investment will see the development of a basement parking level, a podium level and four (4) levels of Commercial Office spaces with all utilities and services to inclusively serve the needs of all tenants of the building.  The Board has already commenced seeking and canvassing for potential tenants for the new commercial property.

“Today, we are marking the beginning of construction works of this new commercial property by successful bidder AJ Enterprises Limited who successfully tendered for the project among other competitive bidders.

“On behalf of the SINPF Board Chairman and Board Directors, I would like to congratulate AJ Enterprises Limited for your successful bid to construct our new high rise commercial property.  The Board have the trust and confidence in your ability to deliver the successful completion of the project according to our quality specifications, agreed time, and within budget.

“Our project manager for the project is FMC Pacific Limited who has partnered with the Board in the past to design and develop the new Australian Government Apartments and the Hibiscus Apartments expansion.  FMC has been a productive partner with the SINPF Board to develop and manage these properties new developments.

“Besides investing to protect and grow our members contribution balances with good returns, there are also the wider positive ramifications that comes with such new investments that our wider economy will benefit from.   These include the creation of new employment opportunities, creating additional business for local suppliers of goods and services and creating additional taxes for the government to pay for its services for our growing population.  The completion of this new building will also provide a face lift for our national capital city Honiara.

“The SINPF Board’s current property investment portfolio has now reached $727.5M at the end of 31 December 2023.  This portfolio includes developed and undeveloped commercial properties in Honiara City, Auki in the Malaita Prince and Tulagi in the Central Islands Province. Our property investment portfolio is expected to expand further with the completion of the Australian Government Apartments and later this new commercial property.

“We also have planned property investments that include the development of our high covenant residential property at Tavio Ridge in West Honiara, our continued investigation on the feasibility of developing our Panatina Land at East Honiara for residential homes in partnership with any credible formal multilateral financial institution, and the development of our Town Ground and NPF building car park properties.” Mr. Rupokets said.

In his remarks at the groundbreaking event, Jerry Tengemoana of Prime Consulting, the Project Business Advisor to AJ Enterprise expressed gratitude to the SINPF Board and the Management for the trust and confidence for awarding the contract to AJ Enterprise to construct the project.

Mr. Tengemoana informed the guests and officials that AJ Enterprise had already shipped all materials for construction in the country.

He also assured the SINPF Board and Management that AJ Enterprise has the capability and will deliver the project on the 20-months construction schedule on time and with high quality of work.

 MoFT Deputy Secretary Selwyn Takana welcome and congratulated SINPF for the investment undertaking.

He said the project will surely benefited members of the fund on the return of investment the project will have on hard-earned savings of the members.

Tausinga launches constituency campaign

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BY INDY MAEALAISA

SOLOMON Islands United Paty Candidate, Silas Vangara Tausinga has launched his election campaign at Noro Western Province on Tuesday, pledging to bring about more developments for West New Georgia -Vona Vona Constituency.

Tausinga, a former member of parliament is eager to make a come back to secure the national seat for the fourth time in a row.

Tausinga was accompanied by UP’s Wing leader, Peter Kenilorea Jnr who is seeking a second term for the East Are’Are seat and newcomer and candidate for Central Kwara’ae, Ricky Fuo’o

Delivering an electrifying speech which was streamed lived via the UP’s FB Page, Tausinga emphasized UP as the party for “change”.   

“People say change, a lot of parties coming around say change. This is the party for change; United Party. It’s continuity towards change is what we want” he said.

Tausinga showcased a track record of infrastructure development that had taken place whilst serving his tenure since 2010, these includes the Munda International Airport, Noro-Munda Road, Noro International Ports and the Noro town road which is set to be completed soon.

He reminded supporters that their constituency has been the second most developed apart from the capital.

Most development that are happening beside Honiara are in West New Georga Vona Vona Constituency” he said

“For those sitting on the fence, for those who are sitting at the other side of the fence, come April 17th 2024, we are on the move as West New Georgia -Vona Vona, united party is coming to create government in the 12th parliament” Tausinga added.

Also speaking during the launch, UP’s Wing leader, Peter Kenilorea Jnr admitted the difficulties of uniting a richly diverse nation but reassured voters that his party chooses unity.

“United Party chooses the hard part, and the hard part is to get us all together to become truly one nation, one people serving one God” he said.

He then emphasized that “nation-building is going to be a work in progress” and reminded voters that the responsibility to make Solomon Islands a better nation for the next generation lies on everyone.

Pre-poll voters voting clarified

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Chief Electoral Officer, Jasper Highwood Anisi

BY INDY MAEALSIA

Solomon Islands Electoral Commission’s (SIEC) has clarified that Pre-poll voters will only cast their ballots for the national government due to capacity limitation and the challenge to conduct a joint election for the first time.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Jasper Anisi explained the commission’s stance in the Sunday talk back show hosted at SIBC.

Since significant time and capacity has been put into including the pre-poll with the April 17th election, the commission is looking forward to successfully execute the joint election.

“This our first time to run a joint election so we want to do it perfectly and accurately and then we will slowly look at how we can best manage pre-poll” Anisi said.

He described pre-poll as basically out-of-constituency voting and highlighted the commission concern with the integrity and security of ballot papers.

“Out-of-constituency voting means movements of ballot paper here and there. At the same time, though we want everyone to participate in the election, we must also be worried about the integrity and security of the election or else they’ll be tampered with, so we must plan properly for this kind” Anisi said.

Under the Electoral Act; subdivision 2, Pre-poll voting is reserved for eligible voters including police officers, senior field election officers and electoral commission staff who are schedule for duties on polling day.

Anisi further clarified that the commission opted not to expand to include other essential services for the same capacity reason.

Additionally, Anisi reassured voters who fall within the pre-poll eligible category that they would have the opportunity to cast for the provincial assembly and Honiara City Council in the next election.

THREATS IDENTIFIED

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BY NED GAGAHE

UNSTABLE power supply and unfavorable weather conditions are amongst tough challenges faced during construction of the Comprehensive Medical Center at National Referral Hospital’s eastern end.

Despite these challenges, Chief Engineer of the project Mr. Liang has expressed confidence that his team will deliver the project on time and in high quality.

Speaking to local Journalists that since the project kicked off in December last year, they faced challenges such as unstable power supply, intense exposure to heat by Chinese workers, unfavorable weather condition.

Mr. Liang said the weather conditions was a huge challenge especially for the Chinese workers, however, they have managed to come up with solutions that addressed these challenges one of which is the utilizing the Christmas and New Year’s period when weather was favorable to schedule their work efficiently.

The project is expected to be completed by early 2025.

Chief Engineer Liang adds that in order to ensure they meet the targeted deadline; they have to work day and night given the construction period 16-months to complete the project.

Liang also expressed optimism with the current labour force of approximately 130 workers actively involved in the construction, he hopes that they will approach the finishing line by festive season.

He also revealed that the project employed around 70 Solomon Islanders working alongside their Chinese counterparts.

When asked whether the project would need more local workers, he said that will depend on the demand and should it require more locals going forward, they will hire more but currently only 70 workers who are part of the total workforce.

Known as the ‘Comprehensive Medical Center’ the project is fully funded by Chinese Government worth $90 million dollars, it is poised to become a milestone in the medical fields of the Solomon Islands, contributing to the improvement of public health standards.

The project is managed by a joint team from CSADI (on-site management team) and Jiangsu Jiangdu Construction Group. (construction technology team).

“The main building has four floors above the ground. The functions of the ground floor include consulting rooms, pharmacy, inpatient dispensing area, health workers lunge, and patient waiting area. The functions of first floor includes wards, health workers lounge, and health workers working zone.

“The functions of second floor include CT laboratory, health workers lounge, health workers working zone, and remote conference center. The functions of third floor include operation area, ICU, health workers lounge, etc. There is an ICU on the opposite side of the operation room, with a total of 3 beds.

“The outdoor power room includes domestic water pump room, fire pump room, LV distribution room, outdoor diesel generator, outdoor fire water tank, etc., which ensure the normal operation of the hospital system.” A statement from the Chinese Embassy said.

Renowned security service provider West Gate graduates more recruits

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West Gate New recruits

BY INDY MAEALASIA

West Gate Security Solutions Ltd concluded a two-week training for its latest cohort of 27 recruits on basic security at its NPF Plaza office.

Being one of the country’s most trusted security service provider, West Gate is currently providing security for the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and its sites, DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) sites, residential areas of diplomats, the NPF and Anthony Saru complex, the new Kukum Market.

The Central Bank is reportedly West Gate’s latest client.

In the recent two weeks, the private security firm facilitated its usual training to prepare recruits for deployment.   

Throughout the course of the training, West Gate Director and training facilitator, renowned local security specialist Selwyn Akao delved into security professionalism.

“We covered the main duties and responsibilities of security personnel, access control and other basics of being a security guard,” Mr Akao said

Akao stressed that the training not only focussed on professionalism but also aimed to nurture the character building of each recruit to contribute back to their respective communities.

Apart from this, the training also touched on ways private security firms can support the public security agencies such as the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force in providing top-notch security service for its clients.

For this round, 26 males and one female have been thoroughly selected.

“There has been many young boys and girls especially school drop-outs who had shown interests,” Akao said.

New recruit, Ronald Alley Junior who is also a former police officer said he has learnt a lot from the training.

“A lot of the things I have learnt will help me a lot, will reshape me, looking back at my time in the police force it is mostly general as for a private security firm, you will come into contact with people directly each day,” he said.

West Gate security was established in 2022 and since then has proved its outstanding professional service, receiving a lot of praise and acclaim for its trustworthy service.

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