Vanuatu

Kilman, 65, is the third prime minister of Vanuatu in three years since 2020.

Bob Loughman was elected PM after the 2020 general election. He was ousted by Alatoi Ishmael Kalsakau following a vote of no confidence and a snap election in October last year.

But Kilman ousted Kalsakau in a no confidence vote on September 4, ending Kalsakau's nine-month reign in power.

The pre-tournament favourites flexed their muscles and showed their credentials in a dominant display that ensured a 100% record in the group stages.

Four goals in the first-half by centre forward Angela Pivac set the tone for the ninety minutes, with captain Ela Jerez at the heart of her side’s attacking endeavours. Jerez herself grabbed two in the first 45 minutes to add to the score.

The new Vanuatu Road Design Guide was a joint project between Climate Information Services for Resilient Development Planning in Vanuatu (VanKIRAP) and the Vanuatu Public Works Department (PWD).

The new guide incorporates the projected impacts of future climate change into the nation's official manual of road construction. This will allow PWD's road engineers to factor in projections for extreme rainfall and sea level rise into the planning, construction, and maintenance of the nation's road network.

Launched by the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, the VANKLIA system is expected to increase access to banking and financial services and encourage more people to open a bank account.

The VANKLIA system has two main components: a Real-Time Gross Settlement component which carries out high value and high priority payments and settlement in real time; and an Automated Clearing House component which facilitates the clearing of low value, high volume electronic fund transfers for batch payments such as salary payments and instant fund transfers for retail payments.

Last week, the Pacific island nation’s parliament elected Sato Kilman as prime minister. It’s not clear yet whether this challenge was related to domestic issues, or whether it was another round in the competition for influence in the Pacific. Kalsakau had been heavily criticised for signing a security pact with Australia.

The home team started the tournament with a big win over pre-event favourites, Papua New Guinea, defeating the tournament’s top ranked team by five wickets. From there, the island nation went on to claim victory over each other team in a dominant performance in front of their cheering fans.

Having been in this position before, Kilman wasted no time in outlining the new government’s vision, with effective foreign policy being identified as a priority.

In an interview with the ABC’s Pacific Beat, Kilman said that he wants to ‘revisit’ the security pact with Australia that was signed by his predecessor. Kilman said that Vanuatu’s parliament would be unlikely to ratify the agreement in its current form and that he felt Kalsakau hadn’t consulted adequately with the council of ministers prior to signing it.

One team will book their spot in the Global Qualifier, where they will hope to qualify for the World Cup.

The island nation has qualified for the event and play host to the Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa. Vanuatu, which earlier this year was hit by two major cyclones within 48 hours of each other, will welcome the competing teams as a way to boost tourism and support the local economy.

Two of the goals came from penalty kicks, one for handball, and the other for a foul, which was converted in the 96th minute.

Vanuatu had only two players available to come off the bench.

And many who talked to RNZ Pacific said they believe the opposition is partly at fault by constantly blocking the government from carrying out its mandate.

On Friday, the Vanuatu Supreme Court ruled in favour of the opposition, who contested a decision by parliament's speaker regarding what constitutes an absolute majority in parliament.

The court granted a stay order until Monday 3pm to allow the government time to appeal the decision.

The government is set to appeal, RNZ Pacific can confirm.

'People suffer'