Papua New Guinea Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso has met with the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Manasseh Sogavare yesterday in Honiara to discuss issues of mutual interest to their countries.
Rosso, who is also Minister for Immigration and Border Security, Lands, Physical Planning and Urbanization, is in the Solomon Islands to give prominence to the work that the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Service Authority (PNGICSA) and the Solomon Island Immigration Division (SIID) is undertaking in preparation for the Pacific Games in November.
Rosso met with Prime Minister Sogavare and relevant Ministers on requests by the Solomon Islands Government for assistance with immigration and border security, and police.
PNGICSA has assisted SIID to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Operational Plans and other processes, and training on these SOPs will start soon.
“PNGICSA worked with our vendor to develop and tailor an application called Travel Entry Capture Hub (TECH) for SIID to use during the games to process incoming and outgoing participants, officials and spectators.
“This is a gift at no cost to the Solomon Islands Government and will revolutionize immigration operations during the games,” Deputy Prime Minister Rosso said.
The application is Cloud-based, and will be used remotely with pre-loaded data and tablets, and is secure and user-friendly.
“The next plan is to assist SIID acquire and operate its own border management system which Solomon Islands does not have at the moment,” Rosso said.
“Once this system is fully functional it will allow Solomon Islands to issues visas, record and monitor movement of people, and place certain people on alert and have them stopped and turned around at the border.
“He said the system also has the ability to generate reports when required. It also has the potential in future to generate revenue for SIID and the Solomon Islands.
Rosso and Sogavare also discussed both immigration agencies sharing information on transnational organized crime including people smuggling, trafficking of persons and drug trafficking which are common in the region.
“We need to cooperate and better police our common border to prevent illegal crossings and entries and better manage traditional border crosses,” Rosso said.
“PNG will continue to assist to train the SIID, not only for the games, but capacity building for the future in areas such as compliance, detention and removal procedures, visa management, and refugees determination processing.
“Rosso who was accompanied by the PNG Minister for Internal Security Peter Tsiamalili Jnr, also discussed matters of security with a view to strengthening capacity within the region to address law and order and regional issues.
“I acknowledge that both our countries have similar security challenges, our biggest being our internal law and order issues, and the PNG Government has prioritized this in our own funding, recruitment, and a whole of law and justice sector approach.
“For the Solomon Islands, PNG will continue with the current arrangement with the deployment of our police personnel in Honiara, and training for Solomon Islands officers, and are open to suggestions on how to improve it,” Rosso said.
The Deputy Prime Minister Rosso also talked about business opportunities in the Solomon Islands where more than 50 PNG companies including BSP, Lamana and Bmobile are operating, and also welcomed increased investment from the Solomon Islands in PNG.
Prime Minister Sogavare expressed his appreciation for the assistance PNG has provided for immigration and policing, and also the funding which helped build the Solomon Islands Football Federation Academy.
He also was grateful for PNG hosting many Solomon Islands students in its educational institutions. Rosso said, “PNG's cooperation with the Solomon Islands signifies our will and the need for all countries within the region to work more closely together as a united Pacific.”