Changes to UK visa services for Papua New Guinea

Source: PNG Post Courier, February 22, 2012

On March 5 the UK Border Agency will make changes to its visa service in Papua New Guinea. A more streamlined online application process will be introduced and visa decision-making will move to the UK Border Agency Visa Hub in Manila, the Philippines.
From March 5, customers applying in Papua New Guinea for a UK visa will be required to complete their visa application form online. Only applications completed online will be accepted. At the same time, customers will need to make an online appointment to attend the visa application centre, at the British High Commission in Port Moresby, to submit their application and provide biometrics (fingerprints and facial image).
To coincide with the new online process, the UK Border Agency will move the processing of visa applications to its UK Visa Hub in Manila, the Philippines. Customers will pay an additional fee of K32 for their application to be forwarded to Manila for processing. This fee is to meet the cost of sending the application to the UK Visa Hub in Manila and returning the passport to the British High Commission in Port Moresby for collection.
The UK Border Agency aims to process 90% of non-settlement visas in 15 working days and 95% of settlement visas in 12 weeks. This is a global standard and customers in Papua New Guinea can expect that their visa application will continue to be processed within these time frames.
The UK Border Agency’s regional manager for East Asia & Australasia, Ed Mackie, said:
“These changes are part of a wider move by the UK Border Agency to streamline and improve the application and decision-making process for customers in Papua New Guinea, and across Asia Pacific. “The UK Visa Hub in Manila currently processes applications for 10 other countries with the vast majority returned to the applicant within our 15 day customer service standard. We expect to be delivering the same level of service to our Papua New Guinea customers.”

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Additional Source: British High Commission in PNG

Sam Abal is Papua New Guinea's new Deputy Opposition Leader

Abal is deputy opposition leader

Source: The National, Wednesday 22nd Febuary 2012

OPPOSITION leader Dame Carol Kidu has welcomed Wabag MP Sam Abal to the opposition bench as her deputy leader.
Dame Carol said sitting on the opposition front-bench was lonely.
She praised Abal for showing humility in adjusting from the position of acting prime minister to deputy opposition leader.
“Abal comes from a proud family whose father (the late Sir Tei Abal) was the first opposition leader and hopefully we will make a good team,” she said.
Her message to the women in the country was for them not to thank the government for putting her up as opposition leader which was a wrong perception.
“Government and even the speaker cannot put in place an opposition leader,” Dame Carol said.
She said there was a parliamentary process in place and her major task now before the national election was to strengthening the parliamentary process.
Dame Carol also admitted that an opposition leader must be the alternate prime minister going into the election.
Because she was quitting politics at the end of her term, she named Abal as the alternate prime minister going to election.
She said there was so much work to be done between the two to cover all the shadow ministries and hoped that the opposition numbers would increase to keep the government in check.
Abal congratulated Dame Carol for her courage in taking up the challenge to become the opposition leader.

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