Vanuatu

According to RNZI, Ronald Warsal said the government last week approved the amendment, which would pave the way for work to begin to create legislation for it.

Mr Warsal said that will resolve questions including the number of seats to be reserved and whether they will be added to or taken from parliament's existing 52 seats.

The election came about less than 48 hours after the first UMP congress elected Jacque Nauka Meriango president of the party.

Vohor, who hails from Port Olry in East Santo, was first elected into parliament in 1983 and never lost an election until last year when he was convicted and jailed. He was president of UMP for 29 years.

RNZI reports the country's ambassador to the European Union, Roy Mickey Joy, says the machine is being bought from Morocco for US$340,000 dollars.

He says Morocco has also promised to train local staff on how to use and maintain the machine.

And it is expected to make a major push into tourism industry finance as its footprint expands over the region according to Islands Business.

Speaking at the South Pacific Tourism Exchange on the Gold Coast today (Friday), BSP Head of Corporate, Curtis Mar, said the bank’s lending to the industry in Fiji accounted for 17 per cent of their loan portfolio.

Last weekend a UMP congress convened at the Lycee Lab in Port Vila but had not yet deliberated on the congress agenda when the party president, detainee Serge Vohor, was recalled from the meeting.

This followed a directive from the Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Mark Bebe. Signed documents by acting correctional centre manager, allowing Vohor to attend the congress, were revoked by Mr Bebe.

However, with increased access, cyber security becomes even more important and for that matter Mr Bruer congratulated the Vanuatu Government for developing its own Cyber Security Policy.

Mr Bruer made the comments at the opening of the annual ICT Day at the new Convention Centre in Port Vila this week.

In April this year the Australian Government launched its Cyber Security Strategy. It’s a blueprint for meeting the dual challenges of advancing and protecting Australia’s interests online.

Their attendance were approved by the Correctional Centre manager in the absence of the director, who was attending the ground-breaking ceremony of the new correctional centre facility on Santo Island.

However, the approval was short lived upon the return of the director of Correctional Center, Johnny Marango, and the Director General (DG) of the Ministry of Justice, Mark Bebe, who revoked the centre manager’s decision.

Government authorities imply that the approval to allow Serge Vohor and Tony Wright to attend the congress was pressurized by one faction of the UMP camp.

This was revealed by the Director of Livestock and Veterinary Services Rarney Keqa in an interview over the weekend.

Keqa said the country was supposed to get more cattle last year.

“Last year government should have imported more cattle from Vanuatu but due to the effect of the cyclone Pam that hit Vanuatu the arrangement was not possible.”

However this year, he added the county is keen to get more cattle shipment from Vanuatu to Solomon Islands this year as part of an effort to revive the cattle industry in the country.

In addition, the country made VT900, 000 (US$8,400) revenue from the sale of power since November last year when the solar panel system was commissioned.

Ham Lini, minister responsible for climate change and energy was happy to announce that the UAE renewable energy project has made a lot of difference in the lives of the people of Vanuatu in meeting their energy needs.

He thanked government officials for ‘making this choice of investment.’

Head coach Moise Poida has confirmed his 23-man line-up, including 18 locally-based players and five who play their trade offshore, in Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia.