By EDDIE OSIFELO
PRIME Minister Manasseh Sogavare has admitted that Solomon Islands is an aid-dependent country.
Sogavare acknowledged this when responding to Opposition Leader, Matthew Wale, when he winded the sine die motion down in Parliament, on Monday December 19.
Wale said the country’s future in the world must not be built on the assumption that we will forever be dependent on aid from other countries.
Sogavare recalled that Solomon Islands started from scratch in 1978 after taken from a list of territories after depended on Great Britain’s budget for 88 years.
He mentioned the draconian policy relating to land alienation, that was one of the main factors of the ethnic conflict on Guadalcanal in 1998.
Further to that, Sogavare argued that 20 years after year 2000, the country continues to experience political instability every one or two years.
“I was a victim of two motions of no confidence.
“What surprises me, there was no good reason to justify my removal,” he said.
Sogavare said his government was never given the opportunity to address economical predicaments of the country.
However, he said said what the country needs to rise from aid dependency is for the development partners to put more emphasis on aid for trade.
“A strategy that would lead to improving capacity of aid receiving countries to improve our abilities to trade with them.
“Encourage Foreign Direct Investments to improve our competitive advantage as an exporting country, that’s what PACER Plus was supposed to do but take all day,” he added.
Sogavare said the government is seriously working on strategy to attract Foreign Direct Investments.
“We have already seen big interests of China genuine interests in the country even before we implement the strategy.
“With the arrangement with provinces by establishing sister relationship with Provinces in China, we will more Chinese investors heading our way,” he added.
“We cannot possibly take advantage of this development if we adapt a policy of excluding FDI from countries that considered to be the enemies of our traditional partners.
“We will move nowhere,” he added.
“We really need to come out from this thinking because that is what it is.
“It will be a grave mistake to lock our provinces out just because we want to please the enemies of China,” he said.
Sogavare said it is Solomon Islands that will suffer economically, not the enemies of China.
“They will laugh their heads off once they achieve their purpose
“We need to wake up to this development that is unfolding in front of our very eyes,” he added.
Sogavare said the so-called Auki Committee that makes this position clear, is a great mistake.
“I call on leaders of Malaita to reconsider your position because we are misleading our people and play right into the hands of big powers who are making use of us,” he added.
Parliament stands sine die until it returns for its meeting next year.
