nem Awarded East Micronesia Cable Project Coordination Unit Contract
The Commonwealth of Australia, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), has awarded the contract to provide Project Coordination Unit (PCU) services to the East Micronesia Cable Project (EMCP) to nem Australasia Pty Ltd (nem).
The EMCP will deliver a new fibre optic submarine cable connecting the Federated States of Micronesia (Kosrae), Nauru and Tarawa (Kiribati) with the HANTRU-1 cable at Pohnpei (FSM), providing faster, high quality and more reliable internet to over 100,000 people across FSM, Kiribati and Nauru. Australia, through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP), is partnering with Japan and the United States to providing financing and implementation support for the project.
As the PCU, nem will oversee the financial, technical, administrative, environmental/social safeguards and monitoring and evaluation components of the project under a four-year contract with AIFFP with some of the more technical functions subcontracted out to industry specialists. nem has been an active participant in the fibre optic submarine cable sector for over 10 years, as a member of the implementation team for new projects in Vanuatu, Palau, Solomon Islands and the DFAT funded Coral Sea Cable Project connecting Sydney to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and Honiara, Solomon Islands.
“The awarding of this contract is verification of the level of industry experience that nem has built up through its work in this industry” stated CEO, John McKinstry. “nem was appointed as a member of DFAT’s Capital Infrastructure Service Panel in 2020 and more recently to the Corporate Management Advisory Services Panel under the Department of Finance in January 2022 in recognition of this experience and looks forward to supporting many similar initiatives in the future through its Project Management Division”
For further information about the EMCP, visit the AIFFP website:
https://www.aiffp.gov.au/investments/investment-list/east-micronesia-cable