President of the Gizo Marker Vendors Association Lauretta Nalasa speaking during the launching of the jetties
BY BEN BILUA Gizo
GIZO Market Vendors Association (GMVA) has acknowledged World Bank and Western Provincial Government for the major upgrading of access to Gizo Market.
The Association made the acknowledgement after the opening of two new jetties which brings the total number of jetties in the Gizo Market to three.
President of the Association, Lauretta Nalasa said the completion of the three jetties is a great relief for vendors as the jetties will provide safe access to offload products at the market.
“Looking back three years ago, I can say that our vendors from nearby Islands were indeed faced challenges trying to offload their products and bring them to the market. It was even more difficult when there is low tide, vendors have to carry heavy loads for quite a distance before reaching the market.
“At times, some of our vendors’ products were spoilt just when trying to reach the market.
“These jetties are a game changer and I must say that we are very pleased with the facilities,” she said.
Nalasa said management of the jetties will be tough but she is confident that Gizo Town Council will help to make sure the facilities are in good condition for longer period of time.
She calls on market vendors to respect and share the facilities so that everyone can have equal benefit.
PS of Western Province Jeffrey Wickham cut the ribbon to mark the opening of the jetties as other officials watched
BY BEN BILUA Gizo
GIZO Market vendors and officials witnessed the opening of two jetties at Gizo market yesterday.
Gizo Market now has three jetties for vendors from surrounding communities to offload their product safely upon arrival at the market.
Speaking during the launching ceremony, Permanent Secretary of Western Provincial Government, Jeffrey Wickham acknowledged the World Bank through Community Access and Urban Services Enhancement Project for the huge contribution towards livelihood of people in Western Province – especially Gizo and surrounding Islands.
He also acknowledged those who took part in the construction of the jetties as well as Gizo CAUSE Project office for supervising the construction work.
“Now boat access to Gizo Market is solved. These three jetties will provide easy access for our market vendors to transport their products to the market.
“It is our turn to look after these important facilities,” Wickham said.
He said there are more projects lining up under the CAUSE project and that is a good news for Gizo residences as well as people of Western province.
Clerk of Gizo Town, Charles Kelly shared similar sentiment saying that the responsibility is on users to take good care of the properties.
He said the completion of the two jetties is an end result of effective mission and vision that is to provide better access for boats to offload products at the market.
Kelly urges users to take ownership of the facilities so that they can provide long term benefits.
“Someone is losing money to help us build these jetties so as a token of appreciation, we must look after these facilities on their behalf and for our own benefits,” he said.
Gizo Market Manager, Moffat Maeta also acknowledged World Bank and CAUSE Project team in Gizo for delivering the much needed facilities for Gizo Market.
He said the two jetties will definitely address market vendors complains of proper access to the marker via sea transport.
“There is no other word that I can say but thank you World Bank, CAUSE Project Gizo team and Western Provincial Government for this very important gift,” Maeta said.
THE Government has supported Solomon Airlines with $6 million despite owing the airline an outstanding debt of $28 million in fees.
This is part of the government’s support under the State-Owned Enterprise recapitalisation.
Minister of Finance and Treasury, Harry Kuma explained this when asked by Chairman of Public Accounts Committee during the Committee of Supply of the 2022 Appropriation Bill 2022 in Parliament yesterday.
Kuma said they are well aware of the fact that Solomon Airlines is unable to pay those airport services.
He said it is the responsibility of one division, Inland Revenue Division.
However, he said the recapitalisation is the responsibility of Economic Reform Unit, which is responsible for SOEs.
“How can we compromise during these difficult times?
“Air service is important during this time to transport people and cargoes,” he said.
Kuma said Government see the need to support the airline rather than grounded it.
PARLIAMENT passed the $4.531 billion national budget without amendments yesterday.
The budget went through three and half days of scrutiny through the Committee of Supply before the motion was passed.
Recurrent budget gets a big pie in the budget with a total estimate of $3.050 billion.
This consists of payroll budget of $1.363 billion, $1.666 billion for Other Charges, and $20 million in Contingency Warrants.
The total expenditure for development initiatives of $870.9 million including $20 million development support from the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).
The productive and resource sectors remain the priority of the government as they are potential drivers and enablers of growth.
The 2022 development budget allocation comprises of $541.8 million or 62 percent towards both the productive and resource sectors. Social sector is $179.8 million or 21 percent, and $149.3 million or 17 percent to the fundamental sector.
The remaining part of the budget include the Budget support, which is supported by donors.
Minister of Finance and Treasury, Harry Kuma tabled the 2022 Appropriation Bill 2022 last Thursday.
Kuma said the 2022 budget is a very tight budget and the government will need to realistically plan and prioritise its activities in order to achieve tangible outcomes within the 2022 financial year and avoid any commitments that will further derail government’s fiscal situation.
In this regard, the government has taken a drastic decision to reduce the overall SIG expenditure within the SIG revenue estimates in order to maintain fiscal stability and affordability of the government fiscal plan in 2022.
GCU said this is to ensure funding is always readily available to pay all government suppliers on time.
The DCGA in the 2022 Budget has refocused its key policy commitments towards three key priority areas including the COVID 19 response to effectively control and manage COVID19 transmission in Honiara and provinces, Reconstruction of buildings destroyed during the recent civil unrest including support to affected businesses and Implementation of economic response measures to support economic recovery and growth.
The government has committed $180.6 million under respective implementing ministries to support response to COVID-19 community transmission in Honiara and provinces.
This is an ongoing support towards the roll out of COVID -19 vaccination, improve medical infrastructure and quarantine sites to contain threat in communities, improving resourcing and capacity of frontline personnel to respond effectively to curb community transmission.
Solomon Islands trade with China is now so huge that the country is one of the most China-dependents in the world, according to data from the international Monetary Fund and other international sources.
The data, analysed by the Chief economist at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, show China ranks as the number one destination for Solomon Islands exports dwarfing all other trading partners.
In 2020, 64.4 percent of Solomon Islands exports went to China.
The table below shows Solomon Islands principal export destinations in 2020.
Source: Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Solomon Islands Economic Fact Sheet
By comparison, other countries – including those ranked in the ‘Top 10 China Dependent Countries’ by leading business magazine Forbes- send less than 40 per cent of the exports to China.
Last week, longest serving Member of Parliament, Danny Philip said, 70 per cent of Solomon Islands exports are bought by China and it seems that Solomon Islands export rate to China is growing.
He described Solomon Islands and China trade relations as very important while acknowledging that Australia remains Solomon Islands’ partner of choice.
“What we need is not to compromise. We own this country very much. We only want the best for SI and its people. Everything that happens needs to be the best for the people.
“We are open to all sorts of things. Beggars have no choice but we don’t want to open ourselves to geopolitics. We do not want Solomon Islands, small as we are, drawn into these geopolitical things,” Philip said.
Is Solomon Islands benefiting from its resources?
Solomon Islands has huge potential in agriculture but the economy depends very much on logging and most logs end up in Chinese markets.
Leader of Opposition Parliamentary group Matthew Wale described the country’s economic model as exploitative.
The country’s wealth goes overseas through unrestrained transfer pricing, aided and abetted by leaders, he explained
In his statement to media earlier this month, he said the “exploitative economy” only works for foreign interests.
“The extractive industry leads the way, aided and abetted by Solomon Islands government leaders.
“Natural resources are removed from our islands, and our people are poorer after that.
“No tangible sustainable development has resulted from this exploitative economy.
“Indigenous Solomon Islanders own all the natural resources, and are marginalized by this exploitative economy,” Wale said.
He said there is no incentive to change the status quo, as long as key government leaders continue to be the beneficiaries of this exploitative economy.
Wale said the exploitative economy will never build the future Solomon Islands that give hope to young Solomon Islanders.
“Indigenous Solomon Islanders ask why their own government goes out of its way to serve foreign business interests, and neglect their own people.
“This is a key driver of internal discontent, and a threat to stability,” he said.
What’s best for Solomon Islands?
Dr Transform Aqorau suggested that the best security arrangement is that we all work with partners to develop the country with infrastructure that would help Solomon Islands graduate from least developed status and give a future to young people.
“Think about the future of our young people and how they are going to be able to lead a comfortable life in this country,” he told the same event at which Hon Danny Philip spoke..
Is Solomon Islands vulnerable to a China trade trap?
Economic theory tells us it is dangerous to be too dependent on any one industry or trading partner.
China has a history of using trade to exert pressure on its trading partners. The more dependent a country, the more vulnerable it is to such action,
In early 2020, China slapped restrictions on a wide range of Australian exports after Australia supported a call for a global inquiry into China’s early handling of Covid-19.
Affected exports included lobster, beef, timber, cotton, barley, wine, coal and copper,
Even though Australia sends 32.6% of its exports to China – or around half the value of Solomon Islands exports – the trade restrictions caused significant disruption.
The action raises questions about the impact Chinese trade restrictions could have on Solomon Island’s much more China-dependent economy.
Tractor for Sambora Finest and South Vella farmers
BY BEN BILUA/Sambora Finest Press
LOCAL Agricultural start-up Sambora Finest has boosted its operation following the delivery of a tractor to the Constituency, thanks to Member of Parliament for South Vella La Vella, Fredrick Kologeto.
In a statement on its Facebook Page, Sambora Finest acknowledged the assistance as it will grow rural economic activity. Co-founder John Wopereis shared that starting a small business in the rural villages is not an easy task as there are a lot of supply chain challenges. The tractor gave the Sambora Finest team confidence to kick start operations in 2o21 to meet the needs of the people.
He states that the tractor operates on a hiring basis in order to meet repairs and other mechanical services.
“We hire the tractor on a needs basis and it helps us to deliver our dried beans to the wharf in time for shipment to Honiara. The tractor has made our operation more sustainable and also allows us to transport heavy cargo such as timber or building materials which we did when building our new dryer and storage facilities in Sambora village.”
He shared that farmers have been struggling to transport their products over the past years and now their prayers have been answered.
“Agriculture is our peoples strength however market access is always a challenge. The tractor is a step towards enabling our local community to contribute to growth in both our rural and national economy. We look forward to more initiatives targeting these very basic challenges. Thank you to the South Vella La Vella Constituency under the leadership of Hon. Kologeto for providing this tractor to the people of South Vella to boost our agricultural output.”
Sambora Finest is a community based supplier of traditionally organic cocoa beans working together with farmers to harness South Vellas potential in Cocoa. In 2021 they supplied a total of 2.8 tons of dried beans to the domestic market providing income to a total of 214 small holder farmers in 7 small communities within Sambora.
ASSISTANT Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, at the US Department of State Daniel Kritenbrink.
BY BEN BILUA Gizo
ASSISTANT Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, at the US Department of State Daniel Kritenbrink says United States will respond if steps were taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence, power-projection capabilities, or a military installation in the country.
He made the statement during a Teleconference with journalists on Tuesday.
Mr Kritenbrink said the United States will keep a close eye for any developments in consultation with regional partners.
“We have noted their assurances that they’ve stated to us and to others, and we’ve indicated that we’ll continue to monitor the situation closely and continue to engage with them going forward.
“We outlined clear areas of concern with respect to the purpose and scope of the agreement.
“We made clear that we respect the sovereignty of the Solomon Islands but at the same time, we also tried to make clear that there are potential implications to the decisions that the Solomon Islands makes, and those implications could impact the security interests of the United States and our partners, and we wanted to be crystal-clear about what that may mean,” he said.
Kritenbrink said there will be further consultations between Solomon Islands and the United States to discuss in greater detail security issues of mutual concern, economic and social development, public health, and finance and debt.
He stressed that such High-level strategic dialogue aimed at enhancing communication, address mutual concerns, and drive practical progress.
Kritenbrink said United States relationship with the Solomon Islands is bigger than security agreement.
Manawai Chief, Jerial Papapu escorted Premier Daniel Suidani to inspect the market building after its official handing over to Manawai community.
BY SAMIE WAIKORI
Auki
COMMUNTIES of Manawai harbour in East Are Are have thanked the Malaita provincial government and MPGIS through the PCDF programme for funding them a new market building.
Chairman of the Manawai Market committee, Mr Frank Hatahiru said the facility will assist families with income generating to support their livelihood.
He said in the past their forefathers used barter-system to trade with each other in exchange of fish for root crops between coastal and highland people of Are Are.
Premier Daniel Suidani receives a gift of Are Are shell-money from an elder of Manawai communities during the handing over of the market building last week.
Hatahiru said modern money had changed the lives of their people where they need money as access to food, clothes, school fees and etc.
He said as adapted to modern society the elders of Manawai started had a market, but people used to sell their products in an open space at Manawai beach.
“However, today is a different story that we were privileged to have a market facility in our community. It is a historic moment for Manawai people and its surrounding communities.
“The market building will provide conducive environment for my people to sale their products in a safer setting,” Hatahiru said.
Former MP for East Are Are, Andrew Manepora’a, Premier Daniel Suidani and Manawai chief Jerial Papapu posed for a shot in the newly handed over market facility at Manawai.
He also said that the facility will motivate their people to engage in mini commercial farming to sell their products and earn money to support the need of their families.
Hatahiru on that note called on people of Manawai to take ownership, pride, respect and responsibility to care for the facility to serve their well-being and generations to come.
He also called on MARA government for continues support as they will work together to address some of the pressing issues face within Manawai communities.
(L-R) Former MPA for ward 19, Morris Houahe, Premier Daniel Suidani, Manawai Chief, Jerial Papapu and current MPA for ward 19, Meshack Maukera in the market facility.
BY SAMIE WAIKORI
Auki
Premier Daniel Suidani has visited the South-eastern region of Malaita province, a first since the last visit by any premier four decades ago.
The visit was part of the premier’s office attempt to engage with people in the province; Mr Suidani had also made a number of similar visits to other parts and regions of the province.
Suidani and delegation concluded the tour early this week after he visited five communities Manawai, Honoa and Hautahe in East Are Are and Fanalei-Fouele and Walande communities in Small Malaita.
The visit is to bring the government of Malaita to the people they represent and see how they could work together to address common needs of the province.
Also during the visit the team handed over a PCDF funded market project at Manawai to the communities and had a site visit to PCDF projects especially at Hautahe.
Members of Manawai community and its surrounding communities attended the handing over ceremony.
Premier and team were happy to meet communities in the region, saying this is the fulfillment of a representative leader who has a duty to serve their people.
Suidani thanked the communities for their hospitality and for the opportunities to learn, engage and dialogue with each other and their provincial government.
“This is the purpose of the visit to bring the government of Malaita to the people and see how we could work together to address common needs of the province,” he said.
“If you’re a person who takes-up public office and sit-down behind computers in Auki that doesn’t show the commitment you have to your people.
“And this visit is a fulfillment or truth of the right thing we should do as leaders to go to our people and hear from them,” he said.
Foulofo panpipers provide entertainment during handing over of the PCDF funded market to Manawai coimmunity last week.
Suidani said the visit should not be viewed in the lens of history; rather it should be viewed as an obligation leaders must do.
On that note, people from the communities thanked Suidani and team for the visit saying this is the latest visit to that part of the province since late Stephen Tonafalea’s visit almost 40 years ago.
They said that all along they felt left-out of provincial government and the visit has re-strengthened them as important stakeholders to MPG to work together for the development of the province.
People also thanked Suidani and MARA government for insights provided on the standoff between MPG and national government on the China issue and related issues.
Lots of doubts and narratives on the issue and other development issues had cleared with a show of overwhelming support towards MARA government.
The PCDF funded market building at Manawai in East Are Are.
BY SAMIE WAIKORI
Auki
COMMUNITIES in Manawai harbour in East Are Are were privileged to receive and officially open a new market building last week.
The market project was funded through the PCDF programme; former MPA, Morris Houahe began its building phase and was completed by the current MPA, Meshach Maukera.
Speaking during the handing over ceremony, Mr Houahe said the idea towards establishing the project came from chiefs and elders of Manawai.
He said he was consulted on the project and pursued it during his time and work commenced, and Maukera carried it on to complete the project.
Houahe thanked MPGIS through the PCDF programme and MARA government for the successful completion of the project that will now serve its intended purpose.
Guests attended the handing over of Manawai market building last week.
MPA Maukera thanked his predecessor Houahe for his leadership that the completion of the project was a fruit of what he had initiated for the people of ward 19 and Manawai.
He said the project has reached what he had once dreamed off for his people and will now be serving them with economic activity through markets to support the livelihood of their families.
Maukera thanked all stakeholders that supported the project to its completion and called on the people of Manawai to use the facility with great care to continue support generations to come.
On that note, Premier Daniel Suidani said the project has shown commitment of his government and outgoing provincial governments to bring services to people in the province.
He said thanked communities in ward 19 especially Manawai communities for being among few wards out of 33 wards in the province to receive such market project.
Suidani said this is what his government is questing to see people in rural communities in the province engage in something that will support their livelihood.
