Bougainville talks underway

THE last joint supervisory board (JSB) meeting for this year is being held in Bougainville.
Deputy Prime Minister Sir Puka Temu is heading the Government delegation for the Dec 12-16 meeting.
President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ABG) James Tanis said yesterday that there were many issues to be discussed at the JSB meeting.
Mr Tanis said his expectations on the outcome of the JSB meeting were to sign and announce the drawdown of powers and functions from the Government to ARB government.
He said he was expecting the five powers and functions to be passed down along with police and mining powers.
“Because this will be the last JSB meeting for this year, it is my personal thought that the JSB committee revises previous JSB resolutions to evaluate how far we have implemented them,” he said.
The JSB is a high-powered meeting between Waigani and the ARB government.