PRIME Minister Rick Houenipwela has hit back at the claim made by the Leader of Opposition that the Prime Minister requested $900 million when making a public statement during the state banquet in Taipei recently.
The Prime Minister in a statement yesterday asked the Leader of Opposition to clarify which speech he was referring to.
“Can the Opposition point out which part of my speech did I request SBD 900Million from Taiwan? I have never requested anything as such. In fact, there was no mention of any figure of whatsoever during the banquet and even during my meeting with the President,” he said.
PM Hou said the speech was also kindly distributed to local media in Solomon Islands and it would be advisable for the Opposition to obtain a copy to avoid making unfounded claims.
“My meeting with the President was basically to seek reassurance from the Taiwan Government for the funding of the 2023 Games stadium. And no figures were mentioned,” he said.
Hou said the proposal was not new to the Taiwan Government because it had been with them for several months already.
“It is a factual error that is only aimed at bringing a bad reputation to the Government after we successfully reassured support from Taiwan to assist us with the Pacific Games preparations,” he said.
–OPMC PRESS
