Fishing promise
p. 35 · Read in the full issue
THE Solomon Islands Government has sold its National Fisheries Development Company (NFD) to British Columbia Packers (BCP), of Canada, for US$B.5 million, and the new owners have pledged to inject another US$2l million to expand the operations with new pole
line vessels and upgrading of the com pany’s base at Tulagi. NFD’s 10 existing pole line boats had lain idle during the drawn-out negotiations for the sale of the state-owned operation as part of the Government’s asset sales programme.
BCP has now put them back in service.
The company’s only purse seiner will need a major overhaul.
A BCP spokesman was reported as saying that the new Canadian owners would undertake a feasibility study on building a cannery in the Solomon Is lands. The 400 employees already on the payroll are to be retained, and the Gov ernment agreed to assume US$3.3 mil lion in liabilities incurred by NFD before the sale was completed. □