After the completion of the second phase of the Tana Island Highway in Vanuatu, Peter Kormas, a vegetable farmer who lives by the road, enjoys unprecedented convenience. He said: "It used to take a whole day to go to the market to sell vegetables, but now it only takes 45 minutes. It is really convenient!"

Vanuatu is located in the South Pacific Ocean, with a land area of about 12,000 square kilometers, scattered on more than 80 small islands, and there are many difficulties in transportation between various places. This is especially true of Tanna Island, famous for its volcano Ysur. The island has frequent torrential rains, and the dirt road built on the soft volcanic ash is full of potholes. Driving here, you must bring your own tools such as shovel, pickaxe, and traction rope for emergencies.

Before the opening of the new road, it was only 22 kilometers from the family farm in Colmas to the nearest vegetable market, but the mountain road was bumpy and muddy, and it took seven or eight hours to rent a car. In order to avoid driving at night, it is often necessary to start one day in advance, but overnight vegetables cannot be sold at a good price. Sometimes, in order to save the cost of renting a car, the Colmas family carried vegetables on their shoulders and walked over mountains and ridges for more than 20 hours. Now, he starts loading cars at 4:30 a.m. and can reach the market by 6 a.m. The opening of the road has greatly improved the traffic efficiency, and the income of Colmas has also increased significantly. "It is estimated that in two to three years, I will be able to buy a pickup truck!" Looking forward to the future, Colmas is full of confidence.

The Tanna Island Highway Project was undertaken by China Civil Engineering Group South Pacific Co., Ltd., and it is part of the Vanuatu Highway Upgrade Project aided by China. Vanuatu's road upgrading and reconstruction projects are distributed on Tanna Island and Malekula Island, and the part of Tanna Island has entered the third phase of construction. After the third and fourth phases of the road upgrading and reconstruction project are completed, the road network on Tanna Island will be more complete, which will provide great convenience for promoting local economic development.

The first two phases of the highway project employed more than 400 local workers, which significantly drove the local people on the road to poverty alleviation. 43-year-old Galip Roger proudly told the reporter: "It turns out that our family has no source of income. In recent years, I have not only learned various road construction techniques in Chinese enterprise projects, but also my monthly salary has increased to 130,000 Vatu ( About 8,000 yuan), the thatched hut I lived in before has now become a brick house of more than 100 square meters. There is no pressure to pay school fees for the children!"

"Thanks to China for building the road of hope for us, so that local people can live a life with convenient transportation as soon as possible!" said Marcelino Basilemi, Minister of Infrastructure and Public Utilities of Vanuatu. Vanuatu's mainstream media even hailed the two phases of highways as the country's "road to the future".Editor/Ma Xue