Dede Sophie

Discussions are underway to establish a sister-city initiative between Papua New Guinea’s Capital Port Moresby and Da Nang city in Vietnam. This was agreed to in a bilateral meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko and Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son during the APEC Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. PNG Minister Tkatchenko, who is also the Member for Moresby South, said he fully supports the initiative, because it opens many opportunities for the nations capital. Vietnam’s Foreign Minister said Da Nang is one of the fastest growing cities in Vietnam and is an attraction for tourism and other sectors. NCD Governor Powes Parkop, who also sat in the meeting, expressed keen interest in the management systems that Vietnam employed to maximise their Special Economic Zones.  He said Vietnam is leading in terms of that model of stimulating that economy and creating employment and businesses – an area Port Moresby can venture into mainly in agriculture, fisheries and touri

All wheel drive versions of the performance variants of the Skoda Enyaq EV are scheduled to arrive in Ireland in the early part of this year, writes Brian Byrne. Skoda Ireland expects to see a significant increase in the number of 4×4 Skodas here when the 4×4 Enyaq RS and Enyaq Coupe RS arrive. Skoda Ireland’s Product Manager Libor Pavlas says that with the arrival last year of the Enyaq 80X, the AWD version of the brand’s EV SUV, the format now represents 10pc of all Enyaq orders. There’s a premium of €2,960 over the two-wheel drive version, with no change in annual road tax and minimal impact on range. Following Ireland’s coldest winter in 130 years in 2010, Skoda Ireland took a marketing position to promote 4×4 vehicles and succeeded in increasing AWD sales by a factory of five. “Subsequent winters have proved milder which has coincided with a reduction in demand for 4×4 vehicles but Skoda still has a loyal band of 4×4 customers here in Ireland,” says the company’s Head of Marketing