Minister for Energy, Honourable Bradley Tovosia has confirmed the government’s intention to ensure that the key Tina Hydro project agreements are concluded in 2017.
He made these commitments during a series of high-level meetings with project funders and partners in Korea during early October.
During his visit, Minister Tovosia met with senior officials of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Secretariat as well as the Executive Director of the Korean Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).
GCF and EDCF are two major funders of Tina Hydro, together with the World Bank, Government of Australia and IRENA.
ADB is anticipated to be another funder of the project.
During his visit to Korea Minister Tovosia also met with senior officials of Kwater and the President of Hyundai Engineering (HEC) Mr Sung Sangrok. Kwater and HEC will be the operators and builders of the project.
During his meetings, he made it clear that the Solomon Islands government intends to keep to project timelines, which will mean the signing of key project agreements in 2017. Both funding agencies, as well as both developers, reiterated their commitment to supporting Tina Hydro and seeing the impact it will have on reducing the very high cost of power in Solomon Islands.
Photo: Minister Tovosia with President of Hyundai Engineering (HEC) Mr Sung Sangrok