BY NED GAGAHE
A safe and green campaign will be launched on February 24 as part of preparation and beautification of Honiara towards hosting the 2023 South Pacific Games.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) Mr. Bunyan Sivoro revealed that a committee was set up to coordinate all programs and budgets activities related to the campaign.
Sivoro revealed this in his presentation at the 2023 annual tourism in focus gathering held at the Heritage Park Hotel on Thursday, February 9.
The committee is called Government Service Integration Committee (GSIC).
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare is expected to launch the campaign.
“The committee is responsible for coordinating all programs budgets across all the ministries and it will come under that program.
“They are planning to start the safe and green game campaign simply to beautify our city in preparation for the games so it will be launched on the 24th of February 2023 by the Prime Minister.
“A development budget for this year we have $10 million dollars. $8 million of the budget will be used for 2023 SPG related activities.
“The activities are what we will be focusing on. This will include attraction sites and national museum upgrades, Art Gallery, landscaping, bloody Ridge and we will also be looking at other attractions such as beach improvements and public amenities.
“There is a small allocation for accommodation, we know that accommodation will be very limited during the games, most of the major hotels have been fully booked.
“To cater for the additional demand because of that we need to help some of the small operators in Honiara to upgrade so that there is enough rooms to accommodate our visiting friends.
“On the recurrent budget we have allocated $3 million specifically to host some related activities.
“We are planning to do a mini cultural festival and arts exhibition to occur during the games.” Sivoro said.
