Development on cards

A SOLOMON Islands province has agreed to lease a large island to a Chinese developer to develop into a special economic zone, weeks after the country opened diplomatic ties with China.

Experts say the arrangement in Central Province would give the developer and other Chinese firms a strategic inlet into Solomon Islands, which until last month was one of Taiwan’s dwindling allies in the Pacific.

The government traded Taiwan for China in a move that it said would promise more development for the nation.

The Central Province agreement, would give Beijing-based Sam Group an exclusive five-year development lease for Tulagi island and its surrounding islands.