Boosting the private economy.
This year the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and Industry SICCI) has been pro-active in promoting the idea that the private sector must play a more active role in ensuring the Solomon Islands development goals set by the United Nations.
It is not entirely clear to me just what developments have taken place as a result of the SICCI urging in the private business and development sectors, but I would hope there have been productive gains and the results could be made available.
In 2020 the SICCI must take the lead in ensuring investment in the private sector is intensely pursued and ensure that global consultancy involved in writing development strategies for the Solomon Island, if any to date, must be excluded as the DCGA further develops its development strategies and plans for the future with its development partners.
I recall early in 2019, Christine Lagarde, the then head of the IMF, when speaking at a fund raising event in Davos, Switzerland, when talking about development strategies, saying something similar.
She urged poor countries in the world to desist from using global consultancy firms to write development strategies.
She also argued that the low-income and emerging-market economies must raise more revenue domestically and cut white elephant projects and corruption.
Fighting corruption in the Solomon Islands has past its first couple of hurdles with a raft of anti-corruption legislation on the statute books. What is still needed is the actual creation of the first-ever Independent Commission Against Corruption and the staffing of such a body by professional men and women with high integrity and professional standards.
Raising more revenue locally, set against the dwindling round log exports, must place more emphasis on the potential of the tourist trade, the returns from fishing and the possible export potential of fruits and crops such as kava, ginger and vanilla.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
