The 6th Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival (MAFCEST) 2018 preparation is on the right track as the committee is working under a very tight budget of $7 million sourced from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the MACFest chair Andrew Nihopara told the local media on Thursday that the available budget at their discretion has been executed so far was sourced from the Ministry’s budget.
“All the costing, bill of quantities in terms of hosting and putting in necessary infrastructures we try to accommodate within in that SBD$7 million,” Mr Nihopara said.
“But noting that this event and festival at this magnitude would incur other unforeseen costs and those are costs that we will accommodate under a supplementary budget submission to the government through our Minister to secure that supplementary,” Mr Nihopara said.
He added that they are already the discussion is happening with the Cabinet and minister of finance.
Mr Nihopara also said that other main line ministries will also contribute towards this event.
“We are looking at another total of SBD$3 million from other government ministries to support this festival,” Mr Nihopara added.
Meanwhile, Mr Nihopara affirmed that the progress so far in terms of preparation over the past few months till now has gone well despite the lateness of the budget approval.
“We have manage to speed up the preparation process in terms of hosting the festival, the constructions at the main festival village at Panatina should be completed by the end of this week which gives us the one week to do the final touch up,” Mr Nihopara told the journalists yesterday.
He added that the Honiara craft market which located at the art gallery area its 95% complete and it should ready to host the festival village.
Mr Nihopara said that the stage for the opening ceremony will soon to be built at the Lawson Tama Stadium along with the VIP stage.
It was revealed at the media conference that Honiara will expect to receive more than 800 festival participants from the Melanesian country in the Pacific.
MACFEST Director Dennis Marita said that the target number for this festival should fall within 1000 participants.
By ANDREW FANASIA
