Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

PNG hands over final installment for Solomon Islands High Commission

Posted at 23:44 on 20 October, 2008 UTC

Papua New Guinea has given the Solomon Islands Government 2 million US dollars to build a new High Commission in Port Moresby.

The Solomon Star newspaper reports that Papua New Guinea Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Abal handed the cheque to High Commissioner Bernard Bata’anisia.

This money is part of an overall 3 million US dollars PNG is giving to build the Chancery, a million of which has already been given for the engineering and scoping works for the project.

Mr Abal says that this final payment will enable a joint PNG and Chinese construction team to start work soon.

It is due to complete the office complex by next October.