PREPARATIONS for the 8th Premiers’ conference are progressing well, says the co-chairman of the local organising committee (LOC) Charles Sisimia.
He made the statement when speaking during a press conference with members of the media at the Honiara City Council (HCC) headquarters, Thursday.
“Preparations for the 8th Premiers conference are progressing well and I can assure members of the public that everything is 90% ready.
“The venues for the Premiers meeting are on the finalising stage and should be ready by next week,” he said.
Mr Sisimia told the reporters that, from the SBD$1.8 million that is being given by the national government to support the event, SBD$1 million dollars have been used already.
“So much of the payments have already been done.
“Our challenge over the past months is the slow support of grant payments that the organising committee is facing. Because we rely on the national government to support us,” he added.
The Deputy Provincial Secretary for the Guadalcanal provincial government said that this year’s Premiers’ conference is different because two separate provincial governments are the hosts.
“This Premiers’ conference is different from the past events and is very unique.
“For the 8th premiers’ conference, the Guadalcanal provincial government and the Honiara City Council (HCC) will be the host.
“The two hosts makes up the LOC, where we ensure that all logistics operations are done before the conference starts next month,” the DPS and co-chairman of the organising committee said.
He added that, a series of site visits within Honiara and Guadalcanal will also be conducted and a sub-committee is being selected to look after the visit programs.
It is understood that the Premiers’ conference will run from Sunday 4th to Saturday 10th of October this year.
By RONALD TOITO’ONA
