BY NED GAGAHE
A new Chinese investor is interested to build a 200-room five-star hotel at Mamara township, west of Honiara.
This was revealed by Minister of Culture and Tourism and Member of Parliament for Ngella Constituency, Bartholomew Parapolo in Parliament on Monday December 19.
Contributing on the final day of the sine die motion, Parapolo said that his ministry has received interest from an investor from Guangzhou, China, who is interested in investing on a five-star hotel in the Mamara township area.
Parapolo highlighted these achievements of the ministry and updated parliament on the latest the ministry has undertaken to accelerate tourism investment development in the country.
Parapolo said his ministry fully supports the undertaking because it is not like previous arrangements where the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is responsible for the promotional and marketing undertakings of the project to the international arena.
He said in this case, the new investor will be responsible for the promotion and marketing aspect abroad for international tourists.
Parapolo said that this will be made possible through the Air Surface Agreement (ASA) that government will sign with People’s Republic of China (PRC) for direct flight from China to Solomon Islands ‘hopefully by early next year’.
“My ministry has fully supported our new friends from China to setup five-star hotel on our shores. They are interested to put up 200 rooms hotel at Mamara where land was already available.
“The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has supported the undertaking, after these things were sorted out, they will soon kickstart start the construction,” Parapolo said.
He added that the Ministry of Aviation and Ministry of Finance will work on the area by early next year so that Solomon Islands can have direct flights from China.
Parapolo said despite the Ministry’s budget (tourism) is not big enough he is optimistic and relied on other ministries such as the Ministry of Aviation and Communication, Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) and other line ministries for the improvement and upgrade of airstrips and facilities to achieve these goals.
He said impact of covid-19 had really changed the tourism sector and how it does its mandate to promote and market the country on the international arena.
He also thanked his Ministry staff, tourism operators and stakeholders for their commitment and patient especially during the covid-19 Pandemic and to restore the tourism sector which saw the boarders now reopened.
