World Bank

This week the Vanuatu government signed a contract with New Zealand company Fulton Hogan to carry out repairs to the runway at Bauerfield Airport.

Air New Zealand, Qantas, and Virgin Australia had earlier suspended flights to the airport, citing concerns about the runway's safety.

This follows a decision by Air New Zealand and Qantas to suspend flights to Vanuatu, due to concerns over the safety of the runway at Port Vila's Bauerfield airport.

A 2015 World Bank offer of an almost $US 60 million loan to Vanuatu to upgrade the runway is still active and the country has urgently requested help.

Air New Zealand has announced it will stop flying to Vanuatu because of concerns over the safety of the runway, prompting Qantas to follow suit, amid expectations of a Virgin Australia announcement.

Joe Natuman, who was ousted as prime minister by Sato Kilman last year, says Mr Kilman scrapped his deal with the World Bank in favour of a Shanghai-based consortium that hasn't eventuated.

Released to coincide with World Toilet Day 2015, Unsettled: water and sanitation in urban settlement communities of the Pacific, highlights the reasons why thousands of families in Melanesia – Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea (PNG) – are unable to access basic water and sewage services.

The report makes a number of recommendations on how governments, utility providers, charities and donors can work together to improve access and affordability.

This came after TC Pam on March 13, 2015 saying, the payout amount was very helpful for alleviating Government fiscal pressure post –Pam.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Management thanked the IMF Executive Board for its quick response to approve Vanuatu’s request for financial assistance under the IMF Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) of SDR 17 million (or US$23.5 million) and a purchase of SDR8.5million under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to ease pressures on the country’s Official reserves.

“This is the best story in the world today – these projections show us that we are the first generation in human history that can end extreme poverty,” said Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President.

The World Bank explained that it uses an updated international poverty line of US$1.90 a day, which incorporates new information on differences in the cost of living across countries and preserves the real purchasing power of the previous line of US$1.25 a day in 2005 prices in the world’s poorest countries.

In a report Tuesday in advance of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings here this week, the fund says the world economy will grow 3.1 percent this year, down from a July forecast of 3.3 percent and from 3.4 percent growth last year.

"The risks seem more tilted to the downside than they did just a few months ago," IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld, told reporters.

Still, Obstfeld downplayed the risk of a global recession.

“This is the best story in the world today — these projections show us that we are the first generation in human history that can end extreme poverty," said Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank.

According to World Bank projections, about 702 million people, or 9.6 per cent of the world population, will live below the poverty line this year, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

In 2012, that number stood at 902 million, or about 13 per cent of the world population.

It stood at 29 per cent in 1999.

The project, which is supported by the New Zealand aid programme and the World Bank, was launched last month and is set to provide access to solar power for 17,500 off-grid households.

New Zealand's High Commissioner in Vanuatu Georgina Roberts says the solar 'plug and play' systems will be available to many communities across the country.

Six months after Cyclone Pam hit the Pacific, the bank approved the additional grant to support Tuvalu's medium-term recovery efforts.

Almost half of Tuvalu's 10,000 people were affected by the category 5 cyclone, which caused massive destruction as it passed in March, before continuing southwest to Vanuatu.

The system caused an estimated 10 million dollars worth of damages or more than 30 percent of the country's GDP.