News

AIR Vanuatu has announced additional capacity on international routes with an agreement to lease a Boeing 737 from Nauru Airlines during peak season ongoing until January 2020. The additional aircraft will operate new services between Brisbane and Santo and Vila on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays each week commencing mid June 2018. “Leasing this aircraft allows our own 737 to increase services to Sydney and Auckland,” chief execut ...

THE Public Land Transport Authority (PLTA) will control the amount of buses/taxis in Port Vila. Speaking to the Independent Online, Donald Massing, President of the Public Land Transport Association in Port Vila said the PLTA will control permits and monitor situations at the wharf. “At first the Municipal and other car dealers were buying permits for VT10,000 and selling them for VT 60,00O plus the price of the Korean Hyundai buses, ...

THE ACTIV (Alternative Communities Trade in Vanuatu) Association is 10 years old, and to celebrate this event a large exhibition is being staged. Information on all the projects achieved by the organization for the last decade are displayed alongside ACTIV’s large own brand AELAN products range, which was developed with communities and small-scale producers from the Vanuatu archipelago. The AELAN products range from handicrafts to award ...

A VOLUNTEER doctor working in Vanuatu says there’s a big need for education about a good diet to combat diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. Derek Allen has spent the past 30 years working in remote parts of the world where professional health care is lacking. He is working for two months in Lamap on the Vanuatu island of Malekula providing medical care alongside nurses at the small local hospital.

SANTO will be the first island in Vanuatu to have a factory processing noni fruits. During this week, the PM, Charlot Salwai had the chance to visit ‘Waike group’ company who are now building this new noni factory and heard about this new project at Velit Bay in East Santo. Hillare Bule, Prime Minister(PM) PRO, said the delegation that travelled to Santo heard that the noni plant can generate sales of around VT 6million.

CYCLONE Gita is not a threat to Vanuatu at this stage, says the Meteo. Speaking to the Independent Online this morning, a spokeswoman from the Weather Forecast section in the Vanuatu Meterology and Geo-Hazards Department (VMGD) said at this time, Cyclone Gita is not a threat to us. “We have been looking at the outlook but there is a low to moderate chance for the cyclone to affect us,” she said.

VANUATU must not only celebrate Chiefs Day as it is but must truly understand and honour the works of the chiefs, says Malvatumauri. Jean Pierre Tom, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Malvatumauri National Council of Chiefs, said the chiefs have worked hard every day without pay, unlike the civil servants who get paid fortnightly. And he said they deserved to be honoured for their responsibilities. Mr Tom said a nation cannot run or ...