Solomon Islands has a vast network of resources that the indigenous population has yet to tap into. One of these resources is taro which officials say can be exported overseas or to other regional countries.

With the completion of the PNG chancery due later this year, PNG will be looking forward to expanding the activities of the High Commissions work in Solomon Islands. The PNG chancery in Solomon Islands will further enhance the political, economical, social, and diplomatic relations with Solomon Islands. The PNG High Commissioner to Solomon Islands Aiwa Olmi made these remarks during a press conference organized to witness the second phase of the chancery building in Honiara

With the completion of the PNG chancery due later this year, PNG will be looking forward to expanding the activities of the High Commissions work in Solomon Islands.
The PNG chancery in Solomon Islands will further enhance the political, economical, social, and diplomatic relations with Solomon Islands. The PNG High Commissioner to Solomon Islands Aiwa Olmi made these remarks during a press conference organized to witness the second phase of the chancery building in Honiara

After a month of servicing provincial flights the Dash 8 aircraft will be heading to back to Papua New Guinea for major maintenance work. The dash eight will be out of service for an estimated six weeks while undergoing maintenance work. Because of this the national carrier is reformatting its schedules with its existing fleet to cater for the dash eight's absence.

One of the major impacts of last week's heavy rain and flash floods is the disruption to Honiara's market food supply. One of the hard hit areas was West Guadalcanal which is one of capital's largest producers of food crops sold at the Central Market. On top of the damages done to food gardens by heavy rains and floods, market produce was unable to reach the capital this weekend because of the damage to two bridges.

Be Mobile Solomon Islands is set to begin businesses in the country after it was given its investment license yesterday by the Foreign Investment Board. This gives Be Mobile the green light to invest in the country. The company received its telecommunications license last year and will roll out it services within the next six to seven months.

It was not only local communities living around the Lunga area that were affected by the recent heavy rains. Businesses in the area too were shutdown because of flooding. Operations at the Omex Logging camp were shutdown after workers fled the area because of rising water levels.

The latest company to enter the telecommunications market Be Mobile says it will employ around a staff of 200, most of whom will be locals. Be Mobile is set to receive its license in April to operate a rival mobile phone service to Telekom. The company says it will begin providing service to customers by August.

More than 100 seasonal workers will be traveling to New Zealand on the 15th of this month as part of the seasonal workers scheme to harvest squash, onions and apples. For some of the workers this will be their fifth assignment overseas.

During the labour trade period only about 6 percent of the total workforce from Solomon Islands were women. With the current seasonal workers scheme to New Zealand about fifty percent of the total workforce to date are women. One news caught up with one of the first female workers to undertake the seasonal workers scheme.

With business investors interested in setting in Honiara, the supporting infrastructure must also be ready to take on the influx. PNG high Commissioner to Solomon Islands Aiwa Olmi, says if 35 PNG businesses are interested to set up office in Honiara then the building space must be available. He suggests a shopping mall would be an ideal infrastructure to have in place to accommodate these new businesses.

Be Mobile Solomon Islands will be the full operating name of the new entrant in the countries telecommunications market. The company has promised to deliver the best quality at the best price. One television spoke with the CEO of be mobile shortly after the company received its operating license.

Allied gold limited in Papua New Guinea will take over gold ridge mining limited. This is after allied gold successfully took over major shares of Australian Solomon gold on the Canada stock exchange. At the moment Allied Gold is making consultations with the gold ridge mining to finalize its development plan.

The Mobile giant, Digicel had pulled out of the bid to be the second mobile operator in the country.
Digicel pulled out of the tender process at the last minute because Government did not want to give the financial incentives it was asking for.
Digicel, Milestone Development and Be-Mobile were the three companies bidding for the position to provide the second mobile service in the country.

Australian based miners Allied Gold are taking over Australian Solomon Gold.
This comes after Australian Solomon gold sold 49 percent of its shares to Allied Gold.

The Philippines is looking to strike a fishing deal with the Government to fish in Solomon Islands waters.
Bilateral negotiations have begun and a deal is expected to be reached in early 2010.

For countries like the Solomon Islands and its Pacific neigbours, our main resource is our fishing waters.
With the fishing areas around the world running out of stock – the South Pacific continues to be one of the few remaining fertile waters that contain the world’s remaining stocks of tuna.
Last week the Forum Fisheries Agency here in Honiara hosted a meeting to renegotiate the region’s fishing agreement with the United States.

On Friday Malaysian businessman Sir Ninian Mogan Lourdenadin visited the country to tour his businesses – the IT company Dalton.
Sir Ninian is a business mogul and owns several different companies including MbF Carpenters a company that owns huge business interests in Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

After spending more than a week in the country to promote the Papua New Guinea made Coca Cola, the Coca Cola team staged a farewell party on Friday night to thank all of the stake holders who played an important part during the team’s tour in the country.

With the focus of the business world on the Coca Cola’s trip to the country, One News caught up with the team as they left the country.