The Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) is delighted to welcome the interim CEO of the Solomon Islands Ports Authority (SIPA), Mr. Michael Wate.
The appointment of Mr Wate is timely given the operations of SIPA directly affect many of SICCI’s member businesses.
In a brief meeting held yesterday, the Chairman of SICCI Jay Bartlett congratulated Mr. Wate on his appointment noting; “Mr. Wate is a highly experienced figure who has strong leadership capability that will enable him to fulfil his duties as interim CEO. I have full confidence and trust in his ability and vision to lead SIPA.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by the newly appointed CEO for SICCI Dennis Meone, who further reiterated that SICCI continues to support reforms of the Ports and its focus on core activities aimed at improving efficiency and reducing costs to businesses.
“SIPA plays an integral part in our trade links to the outside world and its core activities and operations are critical to businesses and the Solomon Islands economy” said Mr. Meone.
Mr. Wate reaffirmed SIPA’s commitment to improving operations and efficiency at the ports and willingness to work with SICCI and the business community, saying “as a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) responsible for ports services, SIPA will continue to make efforts to improve the services we offer and create an environment that is conducive to port users”.
Meanwhile it is important to note SIPA is still a member of SICCI. Recent media speculation that SIPA withdrew its membership from SICCI is baseless and untrue.
SICCI is an organisation of members with similar interests and is the peak representative body for the private sector business community. SICCI looks forward to working closely with the interim CEO, SIPA’s Board and management to strongly support efforts to improve the efficiency of all ports in the Solomon Islands.
