Fisheries deals signed

By SAMUEL BARIASI
THE recent Supreme Court declaration of the Public Money Management Regularisation (PMMR) Act 2017 as unconstitutional will help the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) provide enough technical and financial support to provinces, Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Dr Lino Tom says.
Tom said the NFA had faced some challenges in supporting fisheries in provinces because of the PMMR Act 2017.
“Under the Act, 90 per cent of the NFA’s revenue had been taken away,” he said.
The minister made the remarks on Friday when NFA signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with Central and Western provinces to create more economic opportunities for fisheries development.
The MoA was cosigned by Western Governor Taboi Yoto and Central Governor Robert Agarobe.
“This MoA is aimed at empowering your provinces to identify areas of strength and to build on them so that we can collaborate in creating value opportunities,” Tom told the governors.
“The MoA is also aimed at providing more opportunities for our people to earn an income from fisheries and marine resources.”
Yoto said he was happy to work with the NFA to ensure that his people were economically empowered.
“At the moment, my people depend on fishing for subsistence purposes but we have the potential to turn fisheries into a big industry in our province,” he said.
Yoto said he wanted the NFA to assist his province to access markets in Indonesia and Australia.
Agarobe said his province had a huge potential and was looking forward to working with the NFA.
“We want the provincial governments to have more say in the development of fisheries and marine products,” he said.