Vanuatu airports boosted by NZ aid

Transcript

Vanuatu's international airports on Efate and Santo have been boosted by equipment provided by New Zealand.

The equipment has been presented to the Vanuatu Airport Authority for use at Bauerfield and Pekoa airports.

New Zealand's high commissioner Georgina Roberts told Hilaire Bule that the latest donation is part of the partnership between her government and that of Vanuatu.

GEORGINA ROBERTS: That partnership has been managed through the aviation security in New Zealand working with Airports Vanuatu Limited (AVL). So for several years now, AFSEC NZ, working with AVL, have been undertaking a programme to ensure that there are safe and secure equipment at Vanuatu Airports - Bauerfield and Pekoa, particularly. And New Zealand last week was able to hand over equipment to help in managing those responsibilities so we were very happy to hand over UHF radios and hardware which forms part of maintaining the scanning equipment, that New Zealand donated earlier this year. I was very happy to also handover a vehicle, which helps monitor the security at Bauerfield and Pekoa so that they can maintain the runway and make sure that all the equipment is being used appropriately and we also handed over some body scanners, so when you go through the scanning equipment at the Bauerfield Airport that equipment has been supplied by New Zealand to support AVL meet its responsibilities. In this world now, where there are many many travellers and many people coming to Vanuatu and travelling from Vanuatu, this is a standard of equipment that can sometimes be very challenging for the authorities to obtain but also to maintain and so New Zealand through AFSEC, working with AVL, has been very happy to support those responsibilities and support AVL in meeting those very challenging demands?

HILAIRE BULE: So New Zealand is helping the airports to meet international standards?

GR: It is helping Vanuatu Airport to meet those standards, yes. So this is an ongoing programme of work, there are many responsibilities that the authorities managing airports have to meet and we have been working through AFSEC   with AVL to assist to meet some of those technical requirements, handing over the equipment as we have done recently, but also providing some of the technical assistance when dealing with some of the regulations and paperwork that have to be met to make sure that Vanuatu can say that international travellers, when you are coming to Vanuatu, these are the standards that are being met but also the equipment that is available here is also of a standard similar to other international airports.