Promised jobs
In his inimitable style of writing Samson Sade writing in today’s Solomon Times 0nline poses a pertinent question I imagine he is not alone in thinking.
Here is the gist of his story.
While the country is focusing much of its attention on the COVID-19 pandemic, our economy and the opportunities that come with it, are taking a dive.
One of the key economic indicators for the growth, or lack of it, of any country is employment. While the vast majority of those formally employed is in government, the private sector is often seen as the panacea for growth in employment, and the economy generally.
The Democratic Coalition Government for Advancement (DCGA) promised that job opportunities will increase substantially for locals because of promised infrastructure development. Indeed, the town is now booming with infrastructure developments taking place east of Honiara.
But take a look at the workforce behind this infrastructure boom. No locals, even for jobs that could be done competently by locals. Skills transfer is an important aspect of such infrastructure projects, unfortunately for us, our engineers, plumbers, carpenters are also onlookers, and none have been given the opportunity to further their skills.
So where are the jobs promised? Will we continue to look down on our local workforce?
For now, what seems obvious is that dominance in the construction sector will come at the cost of local contractors in partner countries. What about our excess capacity? What about capacity building our local workforce? What about our local contractors?
Building a stadium should involve local participation - meaning job creation.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
