Airports development need stable government: Natuman

The country needs stability in government to complete the process with the World Bank to access the $US59.8 million (Vt64.8 billion) Loan for the Phase 2 rehabilitation of the Port Vila Bauerfield International Airport runway, says Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Commerce, Trade and Tourism Joe Natuman.

When asked at a press conference after the official ceremony for completion of phase 1 repair work last Thursday, when the government expected to achieve its plans to get Bauerfield and Pekoa Airports in Luganville, Santo, to Code E status using funding from the World Bank loan, he stressed it all depended on having a stable government.

Natuman had firsthand experience with what he emphasized in his speech at the ceremony marking the completion of Phase 1 of repair work on the Bauerfield runway as “neglect by successive governments and those in authority that resulted in airlines pulling out of Vanuatu and government losing revenue”.

When he was Prime Minister in 2014, his government started finalizing the loan agreement with the World Bank to complete the work on the fast deteriorating Bauerfield runway condition.

This was after he described the concession agreement signed by his predecessor, Prime Minister Moana Carcasses-led government and the Singapore-based company Vanuatu Trade Development Limited (VTDL) in 2013 a “scam”.

The VTDL agreement lapsed after one year.

In 2015 when the Natuman government was ousted, the new Sato Kilman government was reported to favor a Chinese-financing project for the airport repair, which would require further technical work and time to be done, and the World Bank financing was allegedly set aside.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism, Natuman was understandably abrupt in his response to the question at the press conference last Thursday when asked how long it would be before the World Bank loan negotiations were completed and the work on phase 2 on the Bauerfield airport runway started.

“We need a stable government,” he was quick to respond, echoing his remarks in his speech earlier, that “neglect by successive governments were to blame” for the situation faced today with Bauerfield Airport and its effects on tourism and the economy of the country.

Minister for Infrastructure and Public Utilities Jotham Napat emphasized in his speech at that occasion that he was determined to see the plan through for the complete repair of the Bauerfield Airport runway and upgrade to Code E level to accommodate Boeing 787 and Airbus A330 aircraft on long haul flights to enhance economic and tourism growth.