Western province is flourishing: Maepioh

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

WESTERN Province is flourishing, proving how effective its policies have been in the last four years, according to Premier Wayne Maepioh.

He makes this declaration in response to questions over the effectiveness of the policies of the province by Mr Ramrakha Talasasa, MPA for ward 16, during last week’s first assembly meeting on Monday.

Talasasa had called out Western province’s government to prove whether its policies have been effective in the last four years.

Maepioh, speaking to Island Sun yesterday, says that on the contrary to Talasasa’s opinions, Western province’s developments especially in investments is flourishing compared to other provinces.

“Western Provincial Government’s policy is very vibrant. In terms of policies directions, we are achieving a lot in terms of business confidence in the province which is a big achievement to our policy.

“One of my objectives when I came into power as the Premier of Western Province is the open-door policy. That policy is now starting to pick up resulting in investors having interests in the province.

“To me, there is already a positive confidence by the people which is economically proven in terms of confidence from investors. Apart from logging and other activities, the tourism sector is picking up in the province though other productive sectors need more emphases.

“For the cocoa, copra and tuna industries sectors, we will try to relook in them again to talk with the National Government Ministries for their directions in terms of their policies so that we implement them too.

“If we look at the positive side of these areas, the government is trying to promote the province as a place to invest in. This is only what we are trying to echo out to the public to create a welcoming environment.”

The Premier added that not everything can be automatically achieved because of the limits of funds too for the provincial government levels.

This financial year round 2016-17 during the supplementary of the provincial government, Western province managed to have a surplus revenue of $8million compared to the grant given by the national government of $9million.

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