The Solomon Islands ports authority celebrated it 20th anniversary over the weekend. The celebration was held at the maranatha hall at burns Creek. During the celebrations the company recognized the long service of some of the companies’ staff who served the company during it 20 years

After almost a month of poor and virtually no network coverage for mobile phones, Our Telekom today publicly apologized for its poor mobile service.

A senior regional economist and Solomon Islands former Central Bank governor has called for commercial banks to make credit available for rural and urban entrepreneurs.Tony Hughes says by making credit available people will be able to use money to develop industries and take themselves out of poverty. He says aid donors  must start working with commercial banks to make this possible.

Although world economic markets are recovering from the global financial crisis, Pacific economies are still under threat from the impacts of the economic downturn.
Pacific leaders are meeting in Vanuatu this week to assess the impact of the global financial crisis and how countries in the region can move forward.

The bank of south pacific ATM machines at the banks point cruz branch have can finally be seen as complete. The bank will also be rolling out ATM service in provinces

Be-mobile distributed hundreds of T-shirts and Caps in town today. Honiara streets are obvious with people wearing orange t-shits and caps with the Be-Mobile insignia. Be-mobile chief executive officer Julian Coustavry says this is a good will gesture to say thanked you with hope of providing quality services.

So far so good. Things are already working well for the new telecommunication company Be mobile in Solomon Islands. According to the Managing Director Julian Coustavry the new company is well ahead with its schedule and has already signed twenty new lease agreements .

One of the country's leading shipyards, Taroniara, has now diversified its business to also provide life rafts for ships. The shipyard which is owned by the Church of Melanesia, is now selling and repairing life rafts for ocean going vessels.

A prominent economist has warned that Solomon Islands and countries in the South Pacific will continue to face more financial crisis in the coming future. The former governor of Fiji's Reserve Bank says it is evident that the world will encounter more financial crisis's, occurring more frequently and with a wider impact. But he says the government's in the Pacific can take action to strengthen their economic base.

A new player in the aviation sector, the Solomon Islands Terminal Service today received its certificate of operation to begin its operation at the Henderson Airport. The locally owned company will look after all baggage handling at the international and domestic terminals.

The launching of Solomon Islands Terminal Service comes as the national carrier Solomon Airlines announced that it will be closing down some of its non core operation and outsourcing them to local companies.

Take a look at most of the commercial building buildings in town. Most of them perhaps have been designed by the same architects, and above all, most of are in need of some form of face lift.

One of the newest developments taking shape at Point Cruz is the new Honiara shopping mall. The new development is set to be competed later in the year with the company already advertising for suitable tenants.

The Silent World Shipping and logistic company has made a special trip to Su`u in their new vessel 360 Discovery. The trip left this afternoon with school students and will arrive back here in Honiara tomorrow morning.

Today the Didao Refilling Station along the Prince Phillip highway took delivery of four new fuel bouwzers. They replaced the older ones used by the refilling station.

Finally it is over, after a month/ the chronic power cuts that have been plaguing Honiara has now come to an end. SIEA workers today told One News that a generator problem that had been responsible for continuous power cuts in the capital had finally been fixed. The power cuts had caused frustration for many companies who were affected by the  frequent power black outs.

The Chamber of Commerce recently brought in a business consultant to assist the chamber with its yearly plan. The business consultant is Ben Barnett a volunteer from Australia who will end his contract at the end of this month.

2009 has proven to be a historical year for our national carrier, Solomon Airlines. The airline last year made a profit for the first time in many years. The announcement was made by the Chairman of Solomon Airlines Board of Directors Bill Taylor on Friday.

The two dash 8 aircraft brought in by Solair to assist in its provincial routes have reduced the burden on Solair’s fleet and improved the efficiency of the airlines provincial schedule. As re-fleeting is part of Sol Air’s long term development Plans, a new dash 8 is a very real option for the airline.

Solomon airlines Belama lounge which was opened last week was today officially launched by the by Prime Minister Dr Derek Sikua. The lounge will cater for business class travelers and is part of the airlines move to increase range of services. The lounge will be available for use by Belama lounge members.