Prime Minister Hon Alatoi Ishmael Kalsakau has officially launched the new company VANUEX LTD on 7^th February 2023, which will be conducting business/trade through Digital technology. He has pointed out that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic outlook is within the same level of Digital transformation.

Most country’s economy are moving towards Digital and Vanuatu is going in the same direction.

The announcement was made along side MP Jessy Luo, MP for Malekula Hon Anatole Hymak and Minister of Agriculture Hon Nako Natuman.

4 billion VT projects to be funded from Chinese funds that were never used. Prime Minister Hon Alatoi Ishmael Kalsakau Maau’koro has announced a total of 4 billion projects from the aid money that was never utilised by the previous government. The 2 billion for 2021 will be injected into road projects for Efate and Santo while a further 2 million for 2022 will be go towards the construction of a new school of nursing collage in Santo and up grading health facilities.

The Prime Minister made the announcement after signing off all documentations that were later dispatched to Chinese Embassy last week. When he came into office after his election as PM, he found out that 2 billion Chinese grand for 2021 and another 2 million for 2022 was never put to use. The Prime Minister Maau’koro said it is best to target only two islands and make an impact and move to other islands next. This does not mean the government has ignored other islands completely under this grand. We have 2023 and 2024 still to be utilised and the Public Works will still continue working on our roads.

PORT VILA, 17^th June 2025 – The Vanuatu Government fully understands the frustrations people have over the conditions of the roads in the Capital but stresses that it is highly imperative that relevant authorities follow due processes to ensure that the road conditions are fixed to last.

The experience is that most sealing works have not been carried out correctly in the past, costing the country lots of money to continuously patch, only for those patching work to come off during severe weather conditions. The Government, through the Ministry of Infrastructure cannot continue the same approach.

However, as seen from this map (attached), the roads marked (light green) within the CBD are under tender, while the ones marked yellow are being prepared for tendering in July.

The Government is also urging everyone to bear with PWD as they have been undergoing vital training on how to properly carry out sealing works. Under current planning schedule, PWD will be fixing the roads outside of the CBD areas.

The Government also wishes to reiterate that fixing the roads within the town areas cannot be done without first fixing the drainage and key components of a modern road network. Such a task requires proper planning and design.

Additionally, in collaboration with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the rebuilding of Port Vila is currently being discussed through a consultative process – with the public being invited to provide their feedbacks and suggestions on how to improve the town overall look and experience.

Through this participatory approach, the Government hopes to rebuild Port Vila City back better and stronger.

Meanwhile, the Government has ordered more equipment and machinery to help them address the road conditions in and around Port Vila. This is what resilience building is all about.

PORT VILA, 11^th June 2025 – The Opposition leader was clearly trying to pull wool over the eyes of the public in his latest outbursts against the Government’s performance under the 100-days plan.

The Office of the Prime Minister wishes to clarify that the 66% achievement are the overall indicators of how the Government has performed with regards to the 76 policy initiatives covering the entire government and private sector, which it set out to accomplish since February 11.

The figure in and of itself is a remarkable achievement given the limited time it took to achieve the target.

Prime Minister Jotham Napat says the best that the leader could have done was give credit where it was due. In response to his rhetoric that businesses affected after the earthquake were not yet up and running, the Prime Minister said it seemed the Opposition leader had easily forgotten that it was the Government who came forward with funding assistance that cleared the CBD area within weeks – a task meant to be left to the business and property owners to undertake.

“We supported the private sector to demolish the buildings because most of them could not do it.

“The town is still being cleared but I can assure everyone that once rebuilt Port Vila will be totally transformed for the better. Being resilient, as they have always been, most businesses are pretty much back up and operating in and around Port Vila already so it is quite misleading for him to state that the Government has done nothing,” says the Prime Minister.

Currently, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with relevant authorities and agencies are carrying out consultations with members of the pubic and stakeholders on how they would like the new Port Vila to look and feel like going forward.

“This is a highly significant participatory approach to town planning.

“Port Vila City is a town built during the colonial era by the merchants and traders. This is now our opportunity to rebuild our beloved city in a way that reflects our values and aspirations for the future.

“There’s never been a better time. Rather than criticise what the Government has been doing, how about we all work together to rebuild our city,” says the Prime Minister.

With regards to the road conditions, the Government is urging everyone to bear with PWD as they undergo vital training on how to properly do sealing works. Under current planning schedule, PWD will be carrying out sealing works outside of the CBD areas.

In addition, it should be cleared that fixing the roads cannot be done without first fixing the drainage. It requires proper design and planning. That is being done, and with funding support from our partners, we will improve the road conditions within the CBD.

For the other road works around the CBD, our experience is that most sealing works in the past have not been carried out correctly, costing the country lots of money to continuously repeat the same thing. We cannot continue the same approach.

The road maintenance section of the PWD need to be able to master the craft so that more public resources are not wasted.

The Government has also ordered more equipment and machinery which are on their way. Once PWD have them, they will close up all the potholes with better results. This is what resilience building is all about.

On the question of diplomatic passports, the Opposition leader attempted to smear the Government – an obvious political tactic that he seems good at. The public should be made aware that under his tutelage as Minister for Internal Affairs, he signed off on an order that paved the way for practices that have come under scrutiny with people like consulates and Trade Commissioners being granted diplomatic passports, contrary to the Vienna Convention.