Appointment of H.E. Erin, Elizabeth McKee as the new U.S. Ambassador to the Solomon Islands.
“The U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby has just announced the arrival of H.E. Erin, Elizabeth McKee from California, to be the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and the Republic of Vanuatu.
“Ambassador McKee is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counsellor. She most recently served as Mission Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Indonesia and ASEAN.
“Previously, she was the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator and Chief Human Capital Officer in the USAID Office of Human Capital and Talent Management, and Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Policy, Planning, and Learning at the USAID headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“She has served in USAID Missions in Kazakhstan, Iraq, Peru, Bolivia, Israel, and Russia. Ambassador McKee earned a B.A. at the University of California at Davis, and an M.A. at the University of Washington.
“She speaks Russian, Spanish, and Bahasa Indonesian.”
Source: Solomon Star News.
She has said, “Enhancing our mutual prosperity, mutual security and good governance are the hallmarks of the United States government’s commitment to Solomon Islands,”
“I look forward to strengthening our engagement with the Solomon Islands government and our partners with the reintroduction of the Peace Corps, the establishment of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Threshold program, as well as exploring ways to assist Solomon Islands with its National Transportation Plan.”
In a nutshell, the Solomon Islands National Transport Plan (NTP) 2011-2030 sets out a strategic and policy framework to maintain and develop physical infrastructure, develop transport services, and improve the capacities of government agencies and the private sector for the delivery the services in the transport sector.
Transport infrastructure to be covered under the plan is said to include land, maritime and aviation infrastructure, with emphasis mainly on land and maritime transport.
When first launched, the $79 million plan would finance the NTP priorities identified through a 3-Year Action Plan (3-YAP) financed by the NTF.
In January 2014, a joint review of the NTP was undertaken by the SIG, the Asia Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which concluded with a report which gave an assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of the then existing management and operational arrangements after the first two years of operations.
An overall perception of the NTF gained by the Review was that it is not performing as SIG and its development partners expected; nor as required by law and under agreements. More importantly, needed maintenance and rehabilitation works (especially of roads) were not being carried out to the extent required.
A further perception was that the “NTF Procedures” were in part to blame.
I am not aware whether the issues identified during the joint review were satisfactorily resolved, particularly the financing issues, or whether there are still problems which might have been the reason why Ambassador has hinted at “exploring ways to assist Solomon Islands with its National Transportation Plan.”
The situation that is clear, however, is the great necessity still for a much improved transportation and infrastructure system to aid the development and economy of the country and the opportunities and livelihoods of its entire people.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
