BY FELIX LEVE BARAVA FM NEWS A Fishing Vessel owned by the National Fisheries Development (NFD) Ltd almost sank after being rammed by another fishing boat, whilst at anchorage in Majuro harbour. The FV Solomon Sapphire licensed to fish in Kiribati waters was in Majuro to unload its catch on Sunday 16 June, when the incident occurred. The Sapphire was said to be hit by Taiwanese fishing boat, Win Best 707. The point of collision was on the starboard side towards the bow of the vessel, and the impact tilted the Sapphire to a critical angle on its port side, putting the vessel on the brink of capsizing. Orders to abandon ship were issued, but the Sapphire righted itself. However the collision had caused part of its nets to fall into the sea. Orders to stabilize the boat were given and visual checks conducted by the engineers below deck found no physical damage to the ship's structure. The only damage sighted was a huge dent in the fore peak bow of the ve

BY GEORGINA KEKEA BY 2025 the number of Solomon Islanders owning smart phones will double. This is attributed to the improvements to Internet services that are expected with the build-out of the new submarine cable known as the Coral Sea Cable System. The Coral Sea Cable System will link PNG to the Solomon Islands, with a connecting cable to the Australian (Sydney) landing station.  In addition, the planned launch of the Kacific-1 satellite in late 2019 should also improve broadband satellite capacity for the Solomon Islands.  Meanwhile the Telecommunication Solomon Islands (TCSI) 2018 Annual Report says Telecommunication Services continue to be the single most important driver of economic growth and diversification in Solomon Islands.  "Active mobile connections in 2018 rose to 482,029 an increase of 4% compared with 2017", the report said.  Overall gross revenue from telecommunications services increased marginally from SBD$376.3 million

BY GEORGINA KEKEA THE Democratic Coalition Government for Advancement (DCGA) expects a new regulation on the issuance of felling license by August 2019. In the DCGA’s ‘first 100 days priority document’ loggers will pay a $1 million bond before being issued with a felling license. DCGA says the license is to have conditions on the quota allowed and the timing when operation should start. A felled tree in Western province Photo by Tyrone Lavery Also DCGA’s expected activities in the first 100 days in the Ministry of Forestry includes an increase of license fee from $10,000 to $50,000. At the same time, all non-active licenses are to be given notice of revocation unless operations commence within a given period. These changes will lead to the gazette of a new regulation in the logging sustainability policy of the DCGA by August 2019. In 2014 a report provided by the Forestry sector showed that 254 licenses were for felling while 121 were in- ac