Vanuatu
PNG government loses big time in trust accounts
April 26, 2011
Papua New Guinea – The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government has become the biggest loser with its decision to park up to K5 billion in trust accounts with the commercial banks.
From that amount the Government is earning an interest of 1-2 per cent while the commercial banks are earning a hefty 5 to 6 per cent interest from the Bank of Papua New Guinea’s Treasury bills.
Speaking on the State of the Economy at the National Development Forum hosted by the Consultative Implementation Monitoring Council (CIMC) in Port Moresby yesterday Governor of the Bank of PNG Loi Bakani said that the central bank paid out K4 billion to the commercial banks as interest last year and “that is how much the people of Papua New Guinea had to pay the banks when the Government parked K4 billion in trust accounts with these banks”
“That s why we (Central Bank) made a loss in operating account last year and we are not able to pay any dividend to the National Government this year. It cost us a lot of money,” Mr Bakani said. “We could have done better than how this has been done.”
Mr Bakani said trust accounts should have been opened with the Central Bank because at the moment the payment of interest to commercial banks was becoming a liability for the Central Bank.
He said former Governor Wilson Kamit and the bank advised against using commercial banks to park trust accounts because of the repercussions and the Government did not take their advice.
But Mr Bakani said acting Finance and Treasury Minister Peter O’Neil has assured the Central Bank that future trust accounts would be held with the Central Bank.
Up to five new trust accounts are expected to be opened soon, Mr Bakani said. But Mr Bakani said the country has enjoyed the fourth consecutive year of economic activity since Independence.
He said there had been positive growth in all sectors including the non-mineral sector and with the increased activities related to the PNG LNG project, inflation was expected to slightly increase but if it surpassed the double digit figure, then the Central Bank will not hesitate to intervene to create stability.
But he warned the Government not to sit on its laurels, saying that the windfall revenues would maintain existing infrastructure.
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Tags: Workshops on to localise MDGs in PNG
April 26, 2011
Papua New Guinea – Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government is conducting workshops around the country on localising the millennium development goals (MDG).
Papua New Guinea signed up to the millennium declaration in 2000 with the achievement deadline set for 2015.
The workshops were being conducted by the Department of National Planning and Monitoring using provincial administrators and senior officers from respective provincial administrations.
The MDG national steering committee’s intention was to localise the United Nations-initiated development goals in the four regions, beginning with four pilot provinces. These provinces are Central, Chimbu, Madang and East New Britain. This is also where the department’s provincial liaison and monitoring division’s regional offices are located.
In an explanation brief, the department stated that MDG localisation referred to the integration of the development goals at the national level from the global perspective and their integration at the provincial, district and local level government levels.
It would be combined with capacity building for awareness raising, planning, budgeting and service delivery and monitoring to achieve the goals at the national and provincial level.
At the national level, PNG had made limited success in advocating the creation of MDG and preparing the local development plan including costing.
However, PNG was yet to start work on MDG localisation at the provincial, district and local levels.
With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve these goals, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon also called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on Sept 20-22 to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.
Coming amid mixed progress and new crises that threatened the global effort to halve extreme poverty, “the summit will be a crucially important opportunity to redouble our efforts to meet the goals,” he said on the UN’s millennium development goals website, referring to the targets adopted at the UN millennium summit of 2000, aimed at slashing poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other ills by 2015.
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Marking World Humanitarian Day
April 26, 2011
United States – The United Nations marks the second-ever World Humanitarian Day today by paying tribute to the life-saving work carried out by aid workers around the globe, often in perilous places, to help those whose lives have been torn asunder by conflict, natural disasters and other crises.
Events will be held at UN offices and peacekeeping missions worldwide, with many focusing on those personnel at the front lines who have been killed in the cause of assisting people in need.
Last year, 102 humanitarian workers lost their lives, compared with 30 deaths among aid workers in 1999. In addition, nearly 280 aid workers were victims of security incidents, more the quadruple the number one decade ago.
The General Assembly proclaimed 19 August as World Humanitarian Day two years ago to commemorate the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad, which claimed the lives of 22 UN staff members, including the world body’s top envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and wounded more than 150 people.
Mr Ban will lay a wreath at UN Headquarters in New York in remembrance of the personnel killed seven years ago.
For many years, humanitarian workers have relied on the idea that they must be protected by all parties to allow them to carry out their work wherever needed.
However, the false perception that aid is delivered only by Western groups or represents one ideological or religious world view has led to relief workers increasingly being targeted, ultimately hurting the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.
Earlier this month, Mr. Ban welcomed the United Kingdom’s recent ratification of a protocol expanding an international treaty aimed at protecting UN staff members and other humanitarian workers, thus enabling the pact to enter into force this week.
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel provides legal protection to staff delivering emergency humanitarian assistance and to those providing political and development assistance in peacebuilding situations. It extends the legal protection offered by the 1994 convention on the same subject, which only applies to personnel engaged in peacekeeping operations.
Mr Ban, in a statement, called the Convention “the cornerstone” of the legal regime affording protection to UN and associated personnel operating in hostile and volatile environments
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Marking World Humanitarian Day
April 26, 2011
United States – The United Nations marks the second-ever World Humanitarian Day today by paying tribute to the life-saving work carried out by aid workers around the globe, often in perilous places, to help those whose lives have been torn asunder by conflict, natural disasters and other crises.
Events will be held at UN offices and peacekeeping missions worldwide, with many focusing on those personnel at the front lines who have been killed in the cause of assisting people in need.
Last year, 102 humanitarian workers lost their lives, compared with 30 deaths among aid workers in 1999. In addition, nearly 280 aid workers were victims of security incidents, more the quadruple the number one decade ago.
The General Assembly proclaimed 19 August as World Humanitarian Day two years ago to commemorate the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad, which claimed the lives of 22 UN staff members, including the world body’s top envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and wounded more than 150 people.
Mr Ban will lay a wreath at UN Headquarters in New York in remembrance of the personnel killed seven years ago.
For many years, humanitarian workers have relied on the idea that they must be protected by all parties to allow them to carry out their work wherever needed.
However, the false perception that aid is delivered only by Western groups or represents one ideological or religious world view has led to relief workers increasingly being targeted, ultimately hurting the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.
Earlier this month, Mr. Ban welcomed the United Kingdom’s recent ratification of a protocol expanding an international treaty aimed at protecting UN staff members and other humanitarian workers, thus enabling the pact to enter into force this week.
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel provides legal protection to staff delivering emergency humanitarian assistance and to those providing political and development assistance in peacebuilding situations. It extends the legal protection offered by the 1994 convention on the same subject, which only applies to personnel engaged in peacekeeping operations.
Mr Ban, in a statement, called the Convention “the cornerstone” of the legal regime affording protection to UN and associated personnel operating in hostile and volatile environments
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HIV Aids Advocator says marijuana contributes to increasing STIs
April 25, 2011
Mrs. Malachi, Vanuatu’s HIV Aids Advocator has advised teenagers and the sexually active population not to be lured into the vices of smoking marijuana.
At a Save the Children and Ministry of Health in-service training for Village Health Workers on Siviri, north east Efate and in response to a question about the high prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Vanuatu she said:
“Do not smoke marijuana,” touching on an activity which contributes to the list of major contributing STI factors like unprotected sex and multiple partners.
This is because when someone smokes marijuana he or she has no acute sense of right or wrong. “If someone is under the influence of marijuana, there are no second thoughts on safe sex, she said.
“It will be much later when they are their normal self and they realize they have contracted a sexual transmitted infection that they may realize the error of their actions.”
Notwithstanding the fact that Vanuatu has one of the highest rates of Chlamydia in the Pacific which is the same mode of transmission the sexually active population must not let down their guard.
Mrs. Malachi and IZA foundation have been working with Save the Children and the Ministry of Health for over 5 years to reduce stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDs.
Over 19 Village Health workers from the Shepherds, Efate and its off shore islands attended the training at Siviri village.
In-service trainings like this are important as they update the village health workers on new programs and focus on areas which have not change. In the past there is more of a curative and clinical approach but today more focus is given on the revitalization of primary health care and working with communities.
There are 200 plus Aid Posts operating throughout Vanuatu of which more than 30 are located in Shefa. Save the Children has been working with the Ministry of Health since 1999 to support the Village Health Worker Program in Vanuatu.
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Australian High Commissioner to depart Vanuatu
April 25, 2011
The Australian High Commissioner to Vanuatu, Mr Pablo Kang, has announced he will be finishing his posting early and returning to Canberra.
Mr Kang leaves Port Vila next Friday 27 August, after having served in Vanuatu for one year and seven months.
Mr Kang said that personal reasons relating to the health of his immediate family had been the only factors behind his decision.
“I have enjoyed tremendously the opportunity to work with the Government and people of Vanuatu in the prosecution of Australia’s national interests and for the betterment of the relationship between our two countries” Mr Kang said.
Mr Kang noted the progress made since the signing of the Australia-Vanuatu Partnership for Development in May 2009 (including a 23 percent reduction in malaria incidence and a 10 percent increase in primary school enrolments), the visit of the Governor-General for the 30th anniversary of independence, Australia’s decision to fund the construction of a new National Archives and Library Building, and the smooth transition of the chair of the Pacific Islands Forum from Australia to Vanuatu earlier this month as among the achievements he was most proud of during his tenure.
“The work and travel around Vanuatu has been professionally been very rewarding, particularly as this has been my first Head of Mission posting in a country which has a really substantial relationship with Australia” Mr Kang said. “But at the end of the day, I must put my family first and I hope the people of Vanuatu will understand that.”
Mr Kang noted that his predecessor as High Commissioner, Mr John Pilbeam, would return to Vanuatu to take up the position of Chargé d’Affaires on 13 September, and would remain until such time as the incoming Australian Government (following the Federal Election this Saturday 21 August) was in a position to appoint a new High Commissioner.
This would likely take several months and would follow a process of agrément with the Vanuatu Government.
“My next job in the Australian Foreign Ministry will see me working very closely on United Nations issues, Commonwealth issues and the Bali Process on People Smuggling.
Vanuatu is a member of all three groupings so I look forward to continuing to work with Vanuatu colleagues into the future” Mr Kang said.
Photo L-R Vanuatu Prime Minister Edward Natapei – Australian High Commissioner Pablo Kang
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Opposition predicts no LNG for PNG
April 25, 2011
The Papua New Guinea Opposition has boldly predicted the demise of the multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
It said the project was too riddled with countless problems and obstacles that it would not start up.
Newly joined and former senior Cabinet Minister, Belden Namah, made the bold forecast in a news conference saying the project may turn out to be just a “dream.”
He was supported by Bulolo MP, Sam Basil, and Markham MP, at a news conference in Port Moresby in which they chided the actions, commitment and loyalty of Government Ministers plus Opposition defectors.
He said the state of affairs of the Government was in disarray caused by back-stabbing and disloyalty within the ranks including inappropriate actions demeaning the integrity of senior Ministers and the Prime Minister.
“I don’t think we will start the LNG project,” he said.
“It is just a dream.
“We will not start the LNG project.” He said the project was now faced with a string of legal issues including court orders, injunctions, walk outs by contract employees, disgruntled landowners and unfinished ground work.
Mr Namah said there was also the absence of social mapping and proper landowner identification in the project impact areas.
He said that among other issues these were fundamental and the pre-requisites needed to be addressed and resolved before any project start up or approval.
He said the current problems associated with the LNG project were more complex and sophisticated now because the Government was not doing the right thing by the landowners and by set procedures and practices.
Mr Namah’s statements were made in light over recent threats to shut down early LNG development activities and programs.
He had just returned from a visit to his Vanimo-Green electorate and was taken aback with numerous media articles articulating the concerns of disgruntled landowners.
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Labor lacks legitimacy, unfit to govern: Abbott
April 25, 2011
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Labor has no legitimacy and the public has already voiced its desire for change in Canberra.
With the final result of several seats hanging in the balance, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has today held preliminary talks with the three incumbent independents, possible new independent Andrew Wilkie and Greens MP Adam Bandt.
It is now predicted that Labor will win 72 seats and and the Coalition will win 73 seats.
Fronting the media this afternoon, Ms Gillard made a pitch to the crossbench MPs for support, pointing out that Labor had won the two-party preferred vote.
And she conceded the deadlock showed voters want changes to the country’s political processes.
“I’ve heard the voice of the Australian people in this election campaign – I think that they have expressed that voice very clearly,” she said.
“I think Australians are saying to us that they want to see a change in the business of politics, the way politics is conducted.”
Ms Gillard says while nothing specific was canvassed in today’s discussions, she will lead future negotiations with her deputy Wayne Swan assisting.
When Ms Gillard was asked if she would be willing to make policy changes, she replied: “What I will be saying is the policies I outlined in the election campaign are good policies.”
But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Labor is unfit to govern.
“There was a savage swing against this Government,” he said.
“It is historically unprecedented for a first-term government to receive the kind of rebuff that the Rudd-Gillard Government received yesterday.”
Mr Abbott has also held talks with the independents and Greens but said they were only in the initial stages.
Mr Bandt – elected to the seat of Melbourne – has today voiced his preference for siding with a Gillard government but Greens Leader Bob Brown says his doors are open to either party after it also gained the Senate balance of power.
“There’s been no agreement signed and there’s been no arrangements entered into,” Senator Brown said.
“We have a great responsibility on our shoulders.”
Independent courting continues
The three incumbent independent MPs will tonight hold a meeting to discuss their position as they continue to be courted by both parties.
Member for New England Tony Windsor says no one is rushing into any decisions.
“Let’s just all sit down and have a deep breath and let the voters have their say first before we start running over the top of them,” he told Sky News.
“We may well go to Canberra tomorrow and actually meet each other eye to eye and talk through some of these issues.”
Member for Lyne Rob Oakeshott says voters have shown they want change in federal parliament.
“The big message was people have been underwhelmed by the way the political parties have behaved in the last six months in particular,” he said.
Member for Kennedy Bob Katter says he is looking forward to discussions with other crossbenchers.
“Our numbers have grown and we will be discussing a procedure to move ahead,” he said.
Ms Gillard has not ruled out offers of ministerial positions or the role of speaker as days of talks loom between Labor and the bloc of MPs.
But she denied the political limbo meant the country was in crisis, instead painting it as an opportunity to make reforms to Parliament.
Ms Gillard has also sought to assure Australians that the Government would remain stable in the caretaker period.
“We are clearly at a historic moment in our country,” she said.
“Australia is one of the stronger democracies in our world.”
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Paris attempts to end French Polynesian political instability
April 24, 2011
French Polynesia: French Polynesia’s leaders have been summoned to Paris for talks to try and resolve ongoing political instability in the territory.
They’ve been invited by Overseas Minister Marie-Luce Penchard to discuss a new bill to amend electoral procedures.
Six years of political turmoil has seen the leadership change nine times.
The editor-in-chief for Tahiti Presse on-line, Thibault Marais said France wants an end to ‘turnstile’ politics.
“Paris is very concerned about the fact that there is no real stability in six years now and we want to find a way to have stability in French Polynesia,” he said
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Tonga Pro Democracy MP suspended from Parliament
April 24, 2011
Tonga: Tongan pro-democracy MP Akilisi Pohiva says he will leave it to the people to decide if his two week-suspension from Parliament is just.
The People’s Representative has been suspended after the government disputed claims he made over funding for extensions to the palace in Nuku’alofa, which he said had been ordered by the King.
Mr Pohiva also claimed in Parliament that the money, estimated to be about US$ 6 million, would be taken from Chinese aid funding for the rebuilding of the capital after riots four years ago.
He said he stands by those comments.
“Well, I have a right to appeal. I am still thinking about it. I need time and I cannot waste my time. This is campaign time and I think this is an issue for the public to look at and discuss during this campaign. And I think the members of the public will have a chance to read the minutes.
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