Prime Minister and Minister for Pacific Games Jeremiah Manele today handover over keys to recipients of 20 Indian-donated Tata buses at the National Stadium.
The Government of India donated the buses to the National Hosting Authority (NHA) for use during the Pacific Games last year.
Manele said it was an honor to preside over the handing over ceremony, which leaves a legacy from the Pacific Games 2023.
The Legacy Committee of the National Hosting Authority agreed on two major criteria to guide the legacy allocation of the twenty PG2023 Tata buses.
The first criteria is to initiate the startup of the MID Transport Pool, so that MID has the capacity to support whole of government activities such as meetings, or other major events needing transportation.
The second is to support Institutions that selflessly rendered support to the NHA in the successful delivery of the 2023 Pacific Games.
Using these to overarching criteria, the legacy committee decided to allocate buses 11 institutions including the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, the Honiara City Council, the Solomon Islands National University, the National Sports Council, Guadalcanal Province – the National Referral Hospital, the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, Solomon Islands Correctional Services, the Customs Division, St Nicholas and King George VI Schools.
“I would like to commend the NHA for ensuring that the vehicles donated and procured for the games have been allocated to benefit many institutions,” Manele said.
The NHA Legacy committee will decide on the legacy allocation of other non-final assets from the games in the next few weeks.
Based on experience of hosting large events the NHA intends to keep much of the assets such as chairs and tables so that NSC and NOCSI do not have to hire equipment when hosting big events.