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PM RABUKA COMMENDS CHINA’S POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND RURAL REVITALISATION PROGRAM

Prime Minister Hon. Sitiveni Rabuka began his 10-day official visit to China with a tour of Ping'anpo and Nanyou villages in Malipo County, Yunnan Province yesterday, where he observed firsthand transformative and innovative solutions being implemented to improve local livelihoods.

The two villages, located on the China-Vietnam border in the Southeastern part of Yunnan, are beneficiaries of the Republic of China's targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalisation program. 

The poverty alleviation program in the two villages is being led by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The innovative decision by President Xi Jinping to allocate counties to particular government ministries has borne fruit with the eradication of poverty in Malipo County. 

Prime Minister Rabuka was briefed on the two villages’ transformation over the past 32 years, from its former state of poverty to its current development progress, showcasing how agriculture, aquaculture and niche products including traditional foods, weaving and crafts have significantly improved the livelihoods and standard of living of members of the two communities.

Home to more than 200 people, Ping'anpo boasts a lush environment with modern agricultural development techniques and community projects for sustainable livelihoods.

In Nanyou Village, the villagers are actively involved in the development of rural tourism, aquaculture, entertainment and leisure agriculture and traditional embroidery products among other income-generating activities for improved livelihoods.

Prime Minister Rabuka said he was impressed with China’s poverty alleviation strategies, highlighting that Fiji has much to learn from China's success in improving the lives of millions of people.

The PM said Fiji stands to benefit from China’s technological innovation and sustainable practices to improve livelihoods, ensure food security, productivity, and economic diversification.

By adopting these practices, Fiji could accelerate its own efforts to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable rural development.

“Fiji is also committed to reducing poverty, and China's approach to rural development and poverty eradication in Malipo County in Yunnan Province serves as an inspiring model,” he said.

“These strategies were introduced in Malipo county in 1992 when I started my first term as Prime Minister of Fiji. Now that I am back in office, it's indeed an eye opener, in the sense that we thought we were doing our poverty alleviation as well as regional, rural and outer island development programs. But when you look at the scale of improvements in Malipo in the same period, it's really amazing.

“We have a lot to learn, and I have been making a lot of notes since I arrived on how we might be able to turn what people think are "little things" in the villages into "big things" in the provinces and the nation."

In this regard, Prime Minister Rabuka congratulated President Xi for his vision in improving the livelihoods of fellow citizens in poverty-stricken areas.

“I also congratulate Chinese leaders of the past for their concerted efforts and vision to alleviate poverty and raise the standard of living for those people in disadvantaged areas including where minority ethnic groups live,” he concluded.

The Prime Minister and his delegation were later hosted to a dinner by the Vice Governor of Yunnan Province, His Excellency Mr Wang Hao at Wenshan City.

Mr Wang expressed the province of Yunnan’s appreciation to the Prime Minister, adding that they look forward to future collaboration in areas of mutual interest.

The Prime Minister’s visit to Malipo County marks the first ever visit by a Pacific leader to the county.

#FijiGovernment #CoalitionGovernment #FijiNews #OfficialVisit #China #Fiji

MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, HON. DAVID MCALLISTER VISITS MSG SECRETARIAT

PORT VILA, VANUATU (12 August 2024): The Director General of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat, Leonard Louma, received a courtesy visit from the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the European Parliament, Hon. David McAllister on Thursday 8 August 2024.

The Chairman was keen to know more about the MSG, its specific role and focus activities in pursuit of its Members’ interests, and how it fits in the regional landscape with the different regional organisations, especially in relation to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).

A background brief was provided by DG Louma on MSG and its activities, especially its focus areas on youth and gender empowerment within the geographical confines of its five members of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia through the FLNKS.

DG Louma took the opportunity to emphasise the importance that MSG countries place in their relations with the European Union members and thanked the Chairman for the assistance that the European Union has provided to the MSG Secretariat, through the PIF, in particular the IMPACT Project and SPIRIT Project under the EDF 11 Pacific Regional Integration Support Program.

DG Louma indicated that the MSG Secretariat was now examining the Samoa Agreement (successor to the Cotonou Agreement) to see where and how MSG can access development assistance for its activities directly from Brussels.

Vanuatu presidential palace funded by China stirs debt fears

Perched atop Port Vila, Vanuatu’s seaside capital, sits a gleaming red and white building, gifted to the Pacific country by China last month. The new presidential palace has a coveted position in town, high on a hill and overlooking the prime minister’s office, a building which was similarly renovated thanks to a hefty Chinese donation almost a decade ago.

The multimillion dollar complex is the latest in a long line of gifts and infrastructure projects offered to Vanuatu by Beijing, transforming several towns and villages in the small island nation of just over 300,000 people.

They include a suite of new government ministry buildings, the country’s parliament house, road construction projects on several islands, the rebuilding of a sports stadium, a new wharf, and the donation of a massive convention centre that often sits empty in the middle of town.

Vanuatu’s financial minister, John Salong, whose new Chinese-built ministerial building was handed over to his government with the palace last month, says the projects have been a boon for the developing country, which often struggles to pay for building works itself.

The Lowy Institute estimates the presidential palace and new government buildings cost $20m.

“We use diplomacy as a means for us to leverage the resources we have so that we can build institutions that we need,” Salong says.

These large constructions have become visible monuments to China’s deepening influence in the region, not only as a development partner but also as an emerging political player. Major Chinese-funded works have taken place in almost every Pacific Island country, coinciding with an expansion of China’s security and policing deals in the region and the strengthening of diplomatic ties between Beijing and Pacific governments.

Days after Vanuatu’s prime minister, Charlot Salwai, attended the opening of the new presidential palace, he flew to China with a delegation of officials to meet with president Xi Jinping.

In a joint statement released after the talks, China said it welcomed Vanuatu’s “active participation” in its belt and road initiative, Beijing’s multi-billion dollar project to connect the world through a series of infrastructure builds.

“China has provided assistance to Vanuatu with no political strings attached,” China’s ambassador to Vanuatu, Li Minggang, said in an address broadcast by Chinese state media shortly after the handover of the new palace. The Chinese embassy in Vanuatu did not respond to a request for comment.

Yet, some Pacific Islanders have voiced criticism over the proliferation of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects in their countries.

Jean Pascal Wahe, a community leader from the island of Tanna in Vanuatu, says though a Chinese-funded road network has given his people critical access to markets, health services and the local airport, he is also concerned about the more than decade-long presence of the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) on his island. CCECC is wholly owned by the Chinese government.

Wahe says the CCECC “has now won every other sub-contract for roadworks that weren’t even part of the original road project.”

China’s aid expenditure in the Pacific is dwarfed by other countries, estimated to make up only 9% of total development spending in the region according to the Lowy Institute’s Aid Map.

In contrast, the aid expenditure by Australia, who remains the region’s biggest spender by a significant margin, makes up 40% of total Pacific development income – equivalent to around $15bn as of 2021.

But Beijing’s investment in prominent infrastructure builds, often unveiled to Pacific governments through lavish ceremonies, has skewed public opinion over the size of China’s contributions.

“Australia gives four times as much aid in the Pacific,” says Graeme Smith, a senior fellow from the Australian National University who has investigated Chinese aid and infrastructure development throughout the Pacific.

“But the perception in the Pacific, when you do these attitude surveys, people think that China is the main donor, because you have these physical symbols of their gifts.”

‘Scared about these loans’

Of further concern is the heavy economic burden some of China’s infrastructure projects have placed on developing Pacific countries. China is the region’s largest lender, and though many of the Pacific’s government buildings have been donated as gifts, the majority of its infrastructure builds are made possible by sizeable loans from its Exim Bank.

“I’m scared about these loans and have doubts about how we’ll pay it back,” says Wahe, who knows the government has taken on a major loan from China to finance the works on his island.

“The project is good, but I keep reminding our leaders that in this world, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Tonga has this year begun the difficult process of paying back its giant $119m loan to China, while there are concerns Vanuatu will face debt distress as it struggles to repay China for its extensive road and other infrastructure projects.

“It may be that our debt sustainability will go from moderate to high debt distress,” Salong says.

“We have to check ourselves and make sure that it’s not just infrastructure for the sake of infrastructure, it’s infrastructure that’s going to be helping expand the economic base so that we can continue to manage the country.”

As Chinese investment continues to change the landscape in many Pacific countries, other development partners are also ramping up assistance in the region. A couple of weeks after Vanuatu’s Chinese-built palace was unveiled, the US opened its embassy in Port Vila. The US recently announced $10m in additional funding to the region through its Pacific Islands Infrastructure Initiative.

Salong says such assistance is welcome, but his government will ultimately decide what projects will be approved.

“We make our own decisions, and we know we decide our own priorities,” he says.

- The Guardian

PAPUA NEW GUINEA DELEGATION IN VANUATU FOR TOK SORI CEREMONY RECEIVED BY MSG SECRETARIAT

PORT VILA, VANUATU (5 August 2024): The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat received a Papua New Guinea delegation on Thursday, 1 August led by Hon. Powes Parkop, Governor of the National Capital District (NCD) who attended Vanuatu’s 44th Independence Anniversary celebrations in Port Vila.

The delegation comprised Hon. Lohia Boe Samuel, Member for Port Moresby North West; Hon. Keith Iduhu, Member for Central Hiri; and Grand Chief Brigadier Ted Ramu Diro, Former Commander of the PNG Defence Force.

In welcoming them to the Secretariat, Director General, Leonard Louma assured them of the deep pride and honour attached to their visit to the Secretariat.

“At the very outset, let me admit that it is not lost on us here at the Secretariat that our creation as an organization is very much the product of what transpired 44 years ago in Santo when Papua New Guinea answered the plea for assistance from a fledging young Melanesian country aspiring to take its place as an independent nation in the Pacific and indeed the world.

“In more ways than one, MSG as an organization was born from that crucible of conflict in Santo. That readiness and willingness of a fellow MSG country, that was at that stage no more than 5 years old itself, as an independent nation, took the bold step to intervene, when others older than itself, were not able to respond in the affirmative, to the request for help from Vanuatu.” DG Louma stated.

He said the events in Santo set off a paradigm shift in the way our Leaders thought of cooperation amongst and between themselves. 

The experience he said, convinced them that cooperation amongst and between themselves was possible despite their myriads of challenges and very limited resources.

Soon after the successful intervention in Santo, then PNG Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan invited the first Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Fr Walter Lini, to join him on the aircraft to the Solomon Islands to talk with then Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, Sir Peter Kenilorea, about how they might cooperate and collaborate with each other in their quest to address the different development challenges that their countries were facing.

“The seeds of MSG cooperation were sewn there and then. Convinced of the need to have joint approaches and positions on shared challenges and interests, Leaders of Vanuatu, PNG, Solomon Islands and the FLNKS external affairs representative, Yanne Celene Uregei, met informally in Goroka in 1986 and agreed to formalize the organization and coined the name “Melanesian Spearhead Group” as the name of our Organisation,” DG Louma said. 

Two years later in 1988, the Agreed Principles of Cooperation between the Independent States of Melanesia was signed in Port Vila to formally establish the MSG Group.

The Secretariat also gifted the delegation with a pig, kava and mats for the Tok Sori ceremony at the Saralana Park later on Friday afternoon, for the unfortunate loss of life during the Santo operation caused by the Kumul Force.

“This magnanimous act will have very deep and profound significance. It will heal wounds suffered from the conflict, it will build bridges destroyed as a consequence of that conflict, it will restore family ties shattered by the conflict, and it will reaffirm PNG’s noble intentions in agreeing to assist Vanuatu with its request – to help Vanuatu and its people find their feet as an independent nation and not to deliberately bring harm to its citizens,” DG Louma added.

Grand Chief Brigadier Ted Ramu Diro, Former Commander of the PNGDF who led the Kumul Force to stop the Santo rebellion in 1980, was honored with a Distinction Medal by the President of Vanuatu, His Excellence Nikenike Vurobaravu at the State House on Independence Day.

President Wenda: Happy 44th Independence Day to Vanuatu

I was greatly honoured to attend the Independence Day celebrations in Port Vila. The event was a profound display of Melanesian solidarity, as Prime Minister Charlot Salwai acknowledged the ongoing colonial occupations of West Papua and Kanaky. Salwai’s national address honoured the spirit of Vanuatu’s founding father Walter Lini, who said that Vanuatu is not free until all Melanesia is free, including West Papua and Kanaky. On behalf of the ULMWP, I issue thanks to PM Salwai for his steadfast support for West Papua.

The bond between Vanuatu and West Papua is special. West Papuans regard Vanuatu as family: our Melanesian brothers and sisters who have nurtured our freedom struggle as it has matured into a fully-fledged provisional government, ready to run our own affairs. From former PM Barak Sope witnessing the reconciliation of the Free Papua Movement in 1987, to the Saralana Declaration in 2014, Vanuatu has long been the home of the West Papuan struggle.

Vanuatu remains a shining example of a free and prosperous Melanesian nation. In less than 50 years, you have gone from suffering under colonial rule to becoming a world-leader in the fight against climate catastrophe and modern-day imperialism. Being here in Port Vila, I have again been inspired by Vanuatu’s successes and its resolute support for our self-determination.

Like Father Walter Lini, all West Papuans dream of a liberated Melanesia. We know that our independence is coming, and that one day soon we will stand shoulder to shoulder with Vanuatu as a free nation.

God bless Vanuatu.

Benny Wenda 

President

ULMWP

https://www.ulmwp.org/president-wenda-happy-44th-independence-day-to-vanuatu

Steve Rick Elson Mara Agen NKRI di.MSG

Cari tahu nama orng ini, dia adalah INTEL NKRI yang dipasang untuk menggagalkan West Papua di MSG ganti Nick Mezet dan FRANS Albert Yoku. Kasih tahu ke group facebook atau WhatsApp secara terbuka.

Dia adalah salah satu wakil NKRI di MSG

Namanya: Steve Rick Elson Mara atau Steve Mara (lahir 8 September 1994) adalah seorang Diplomat Indonesia kelahiran Wamena, Papua. Ia menyelesaikan studi sarjana S1 tahun 2016 di Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Hukum Umel Mandiri Jayapura, dengan mengambil jurusan hukum pidana. Ia melanjutkan magister S2 di Universitas Pertahanan dan lulus tahun 2020. Ia juga pernah dipercaya menjadi tenaga ahli anggota komisi I DPR RI. Ia juga menjabat sebagai Direktur Operasional PT Papua Muda Inspiratif.

Pada 2022, ia mendirikan Melanesian Youth Diplomacy Forum (MYDIF).