Vanuatu Post pays millions in dividend to Government

The Vanuatu Post Limited (VPL) has paid a dividend amount of Vt58,916,656 to the Government of Vanuatu, for 2013 and 2014.

The government shareholder responsible for VPL, the Minister of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Jotham Napat, received the check for the amount from the Chief Executive Officer, Wesley Rasu, at a ceremony held in Luganville, Santo this week. The occasion was also witnessed by the Minister of Finance and Economic Management, Gaetan Pikioune.

In his speech, Minister Napat congratulated VPL for the great work leading to the dividend amount being achieved and paid out to the government.

“It shows a successful model by the company that other state-owned-enterprises (SOE) should learn from.

“I commend the CEO, Management and staff for their work and I have no doubt that VPL continue to perform profitably and be able to achieve a good level of profitability so it can be in a position to pay out more dividend in the coming years,” Mr. Napat said.

In his remarks the MFEM, Mr. Pikioune, thanked the VPL Board for arranging to hold their Annual General Meeting in Santo for the first time and that it was a good thing for Luganville.

“The Vanuatu government has many SOEs but it is difficult to see any dividend from them,” he said. “Also the government has injected a lot of funds into most of them yet there is no return from them. For that i must thank VPL,” he added.

Since VPL’s incorporation in 2000, the government has not put in any additional money into VPL. “But there are new challenges to VPL business from technology that is coming in. The most obvious one as we all know is the mobile phone,” the Minister of Finance added. He called on the VPL to adapt and overcome these challenges.

Mr. Pikioune said although VPL is a small business in size, it is able to provide returns and he would like to see other SOEs see this as an example and incentive for them to be in a position to pay out dividends to the government so it can continue to provide services to the people.