Loloata Private Island resort reopens after three years

THE K130 million Loloata Private Island Resort opened last Thursday after three years of redevelopment.
National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund) chief executive officer Ian Trautia said the facility was the second tripartite investment arrangement between Nasfund, the Lamana Development group and the Solomon Islands National Provident Fund (NPF).
Tarutia said as trustee of members’ savings, they were mandated to create and grow wealth for its membership and to enable this, alliances with strong reputable partners was a key to success.
Loloata board chairman Sir Mel Togolo said Lamana Development came up with an idea, partnered with Nasfund and redeveloped the resort to a standard that had not been seen in the country.
“The idea was not without a business plan, and the business plan supported the redevelopment of Loloata from a quiet operation which serviced both local and international tourists to a multi-faceted and modern resort.”
Sir Mel, while acknowledging the partners for the success of the facility, said the resort would be fully completed in the next few weeks that would attract guests to make use of the facilities.
“PNG is growing in economic terms, it is growing in reputation for tourism and it is growing in terms of its own population wanting something world class for holidays and for retreats,” he said.
“This complex represents an investment in PNG of around K130 million.
“It’s now employing more than 100 people, by the time it’s completed, hopefully it will employ somewhere between 250 to 300 people.”
Sir Mel said the project started under three years ago and has been a challenging one.
He said Loloata started operations on Fri, Aug 23; adding that 22 rooms were currently ready for use.
Prime Minister James Marape while acknowledging Nasfund and its partners for investing in the tourism and hospitality facility, said he believed in keeping the government as the regulator and allowing the private sector to grow in their own time and space. Marape said in the future, the government would ensure they provided the right environment for these sorts of opportunities to be taken where business could grow instead of relying on the mineral resource sector.
Nasfund has a membership base of more than 600,000 contributors, a net asset of over K5 billion and owns a 50 per cent stake (shares) in Loloata Private Island resort.