Islands Business - Vanuatu census shows urban growth of 3.5 percent, extra-ordinary Parliamentary session delayed

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (RNZI) ----- The results of Vanuatu’s 2009 census show growth by an average of 2.3 percent since the last population survey in 1999. The Minister of Finance and Economic Management and National Census, who’s just launched the census results, said Vanuatu’s 2009 population stands at more than 243-thousand people. Sela Molisa said in the past decade the urban population’s grown by 42 percent or an average of 3.5 percent a year. Mr Molisa said a decrease in the number of people per household - from 5.1 in 1999 to 4.8 last year - reflects the impact of literacy and education. He said the results show that Vanuatu will continue to face challenges of population growth in both urban and rural centres. Meanwhile, mystery surrounds the reasons for the cancellation of a planned extra-ordinary session of Vanuatu’s Parliament which had been scheduled for Monday. The Prime Minister Edward Natapei has written to the Speaker, George Wells to cancel the session and reschedule it for October, saying he’ll be out of country next week. But Radio New Zealand International correspondent Hilaire Bule said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that Mr Natapei is not scheduled to leave the country until the UN General Assembly meeting in two weeks time. There are also reports a motion for a vote of no confidence is possible and the leader of the opposition Maxime Carlot Korman said there is mounting support for such a move against Mr Natapei. Mr Carlot Korman claims government back benchers have switched allegiance to the opposition side.