Roads

Minister of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Jay Ngwele, and the Australia’s High Commissioner to Vanuatu, Sarah de Zoeten signed an exchange of letters formalising Australia’s additional assistance of over 117 million vatu.

The assistance is aimed at improving accessibility and providing employment opportunities for ni-Vanuatu.

It will be implemented through the Australian-funded Roads for Development Programme Phase 2 (R4D2) in partnership with the Public Works Department.

Construction on the roads began in 2015 and the total length on each island is to be 45 kilometres.

They are scheduled to be completed by 2020.

CCECC spokesperson Lilyrose Welwel said the project is supervised by the Ministry of Public Works with a loan from the Chinese Exim Bank totalling over $US4.3 million.

The Chinese company is currently in a legal dispute with the Cook Islands government over complaints about the quality of its work in the rebuild of the Rarotonga water supply system.