Call for international airport development on Santo

Transcript

A Vanuatu MP says Pekoa airport on Santo looms as the best-suited site for any major international airport development in the country.

A parliament committee is considering a plan by the recently removed Prime Minister Moana Carcasses to develop an international airport.

The plan remains controversial after the former government failed to disclose terms of a $US 350 million agreement it forged with a Singaporean company to develop the airport.

There is also uncertainty over where the airport would be located.

The Luganville MP, Kalfau Moli, told Johnny Blades that Vanuatu's second main airport, his local strip, is the ideal site.

KALFAU MOLI: I've declared my position all the time that Luganville is the best location for an international airport, and as far as local experts are concerned and a technical review of the controversial project that Moana Carcasses had put in, all experts favour the upgrading of Pekoa airport to an international standard. That, I think, would assist the economy because we control at least about 70 percent of the population lives up north. And on the other hand there is  another argument on whether we have... we do have infrastructure and we do have hotels and things like that. The industry will come, it's inevitable. Development comes and it brings with it other services that go in line with the project and as far as I'm concerned, I still regard Pekoa airport in Luganville as the best place for the international airport.

JOHNNY BLADES: So with this latest change of government (last week), does that not necessarily mean that the airport idea is dead and buried?

KM: The ad hoc committee is still there but we have a problem because originally from the outset they had indicated that a controversial company would establish an airport but they haven't established the location of the airport. And everywhere in Port Vila is not ideal. And if you go to as far as south Efate, there are a lot of crosswinds and the technical report has indicated it's not a suitable site because it's swampy and there are hills on every side. But at Pekoa airport in Luganville, you can go for miles. But as far as all the reports from the ad hoc committee are concerned, they haven't pinned down a location in Port Vila for an international airport, therefore there is room for change.

JB: Is the government tied by that arrangement that Moana Carcasses made with the Singaporeans?

KM: Things are made in the interests of the country, and if it's not in the interests of the country, we are bound to reverse our views on a lot of things. And I congratulated the Prime Minister Joe Natuman who has indicated in his introductory statement that the first thing to be done is for the country to go back to basics.