AUSTRALIA WANTS EFFICIENT VISA APPLICATION SYSTEM FOR SOLOMONS
Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Investment Hon. Steven Ciobo MP. Photo credit: SIBC.
Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Investment Steven Ciobo says his Government wants their visa application system for Solomon Islands to work more effectively and efficiently.
The visa issue arose at a joint press conference with the Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare yesterday.
Mr Ciobo said Australian officials will review the visa processing system March this year.
“We understand from the Australian perspective that there have been delays in relation to some visa processing. We want the system to work better and we want to make sure that the processes are more streamlined and I indicated that there would be some key Australian officials here in March to review the process to look at what opportunities exist to streamline it, to make sure it works more efficiently and effectively and it would be our hope that at the end of that process you’d get a quicker turnaround time in terms of visa processing.”
The Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Investment arrived in Honiara on Tuesday, and returns to Australia today.
His arrival signals Australia’s first high-level visit since the National General elections last November.