BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE
THE fishery sector has generated more than $1.1 billion for the Solomon Islands government in the last five years to 2016, all of which is returned to the Solomon Islands government’s consolidated fund.
This is according to a Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR) document which emphasizes that the sector is a key productive sector that not only generates food security, employment and rural livelihoods for many Solomon Islanders but is also yielding foreign revenue for the national government.
In the Business Plan document (2018-2023), the ministry stressed that more revenue is being collected for the government than is provided to them on an annual basis through the Solomon Islands government recurrent and development budgets.
Moreover, as stated, resources invested by the government into MFMR in the last five years in terms of increments has been small hence budget support from donors played a critical role for the ministry in meeting recurrent expenditures including payroll and related charges.
The Ministry last year developed its first strategy, the Solomon Islands Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Strategy (2017-2019) thus the business plan was created to present a clear picture of how MFMR will secure resources to achieve it’s objectives, mission and vision.
“The MFMR Business Plan identifies opportunities to implement policy through funding the activities outlined in the MFMR Strategy (2017-2019).
“These include increasing annual SIG budgets allocated to MFMR work plans, reducing underspend, improving the current revenue collection and to identifying new revenue opportunities for the government in order to fund activities to improve initiatives for social and economic benefits of the country,” said the document.
