Richard Butler | Exclusive Report by Anita Roberts of DAILY POST VU | AUGUST 16th, 2023
The Government has set aside a VT10 billion Capital Expenditure Development Budget for major infrastructures to boost the economy.
Prime Minister (PM) Ishmael Kalsakau revealed this when announcing a VT67 billion budget to be approved by the Council of Ministers (COM) for next year.
The 2024 budget has been approved by the Ministerial Budget Committee (MBC) and will be presented to Parliament in November for approval.
PM Kalsakau said the VT10 billion Capital Expenditure Budget will be directed to priority roads for the next years of the government.
Infrastructure and growth is identified as one of the main prongs of the government priorities from 2024 to 2025. It concentrates on national projects as well as expanding infrastructure to provincial centres including expansion of services to remote islands including focus on transport services, services sector and resourcing and strengthening productive sector outputs.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities (MIPU) is the lead agency including productive sector ministries for Prong 2-infrastructure and growth.
The Government caucus priorities 2023 to 2026 outlined, airport and anchorage upgrades in each province including Port Vila and Luganville.
Apart from infrastructure, priorities were also highlighted in the health, education, water, telecommunication, climate change and energy sectors.
Prong 1 of the government caucus priorities are reforms and partnerships, focusing on pressing domestic issues as well as foreign including labour mobility, remuneration and political reforms from 2022 to 2023.
It is mainly at the national level and much of this work is led by the office of the Prime Minister, Public Service, State Law, Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Ministry responsible for Local Authorities.
