The Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly received on Tuesday the Appropriation Bill which allows for expenditure of £61.4M pounds in the fiscal year 2015/16, supported by revenues of £56.9M and a projected £4.9M from oil and gas exploration, thus completing another surplus year.
Two companies have been awarded contracts by the UK Foreign Office for the clearance of minefields in the Falkland Islands, dating back to the 1982 conflict when retreating Argentine forces laid antipersonnel and other explosives particularly in a ring surrounding the capital Stanley.
As of this week the Falkland Islands elected Legislative Assembly will have a new website, located as a micro.site off the developing FIG civil service website.
Foreign minister Hector Timerman is heading a multi-party delegation that on Thursday will make the presentation of Argentina's position on the Falklands/Malvinas Islands sovereignty dispute before the UN Decolonization Committee in New York.
Falkland Islands are enjoying the benefits of a healthy well managed economy, with excellent present and future prospects in its main industries, but also face challenges such as the need for manpower, closely linked to immigration, planning for a balance between environment and oil industry, a modern government and the continued attempts by Argentina to stifle the Islands economy and block economic development.
Lawmaker Jaime Trobo came out strongly is support of close links between the Falkland Islands and Uruguay in a column which he published in Mercopress underlining the ”interesting lesson of discovering a reality mostly unknown for Uruguayans despite the (Islands) geographic, cultural and historic proximity to Uruguay”.
The recently elected Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, the first to be full-time is breaking ground and has announced several changes to its functioning basically more transparency, televised sessions, showing how decisions are reached on key issues and MLAs views, and for this has decided to name two small working groups.
The Falkland Islands next general election to renew the eight members of the Legislative Assembly, five for Stanley and three for the Camp is scheduled to be held next 7 November, it was decided in the latest meeting of the Executive Council.
On request from a group of human rights representatives from Chaco, Argentina, Falkland Islands lawmakers met and listened to their views on a number of issues resulting from the 1982 war. The meeting followed a formal request from the group directly to the Falklands elected Legislative Assembly.
South American rhetoric on the Falklands should, “be cooled, otherwise mistakes might happen,” US member of the house of Representatives Republican Congressman F. Jim Sensenbrenner told the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly on Thursday.