25 Mar 2013

New Vanuatu leadership reveals its key intentions

4:42 pm on 25 March 2013

Two days after the removal of the Sato Kilman-led administration, Vanuatu's new government has revealed some of its core intentions.

The new Prime Minister, Moana Carcasses Kalosil, who is the leader of the Greens, has put environmental issues among government focus areas by creating a new Planning and Climate Change Adaptation ministry.

He has also overseen the merging of other ministries, alongside efforts to reduce expenditure as Vanuatu's government faces an unprecedented budget deficit.

Land reform and a review of the country's diplomatic corps are also on the cards.

A former senior Vanuatu bureaucrat and now PHD student in the role of custom in modern government, Greg Nimbtik, says the new government may find it hard to implement policies.

He says Vanuatu governments typically have to focus on maintaining the numbers to govern in a fragmented parliament.

"Driven by different motivations rather than something that will benefit the nation as a whole in terms of developments, It's very difficult to stabilise groups of people who are driven by greed and who are never satisfied with what they get."

Greg Nimbtik