On Wednesday 10th September 2025, the Deputy Prime Minister Johnny Koanapo signed contracts for Directors of Air Vanuatu and Airports Vanuatu Limited. The Government is moving ahead with its reformist agenda behind all its State Owned Enterprises (SOE) as stipulated by the new Commercial Government Business Enterprises Act 2024.

 

The Act, amongst its many goals, seeks to remove politics from interfering with business operations of SOEs - something that has clearly been identified as the cause of the downfall of many SOEs.

 

Minister Koanapo emphasized the importance of the Directors' role in oversighting the management of the two key entities.

 

The following Directors were present for the contract signing: AVL - Jessie Benjamin (Chair), Jackie Trief, David Warfe, and Romella Bue. AVOL: Paul Pio. Chairman, Captain Robin Deamer is still overseas (PNG) and will sign once the Finance Minister travels to PNG next week.

 

The Finance Minister urged the Directors to do everything within their powers in order to improve the performances of the two SOEs and the Government through the Commercial Investment Unit (CIU) will be keeping a close watch.

 

CIU is an entity within Finance. They reveal advertisements for membership of the two boards attracted a lot of interest from applicants wanting to make a difference in the stories of the two bodies, which was encouraging.

 

The Government fully trusts the boards and has pledged to work closely with them to chart a new chapter - hopefully for the better