SI Gov’t warned of foreign advice
Quoting the Solomon Star newspaper – 13 November 2018
“Those so called rationalisations under structural adjustment programs pushed by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Monetary Fund (IFM) have not had the effect that was promised.
“Member of Parliament (MP) for Aoke/Langalanga and Chairman of the Bills and Legislation Mathew Wale made this profound argument during the debate on the Development Bank of Solomon Islands Bill 2018 last week.
“He said over the last twenty years government has heeded overseas advice to cull its activities in the economy beyond contracting.
“The advice has been to allow the private sector to take over the provision of commercial services and reduce the role of government to its core business.
Mr Wale said the net result of this advice has led to LDA shut down, CEMA reduced to only regulatory functions, DBSI shut down and the Road and Bridges section of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) shut down.
“Now government is groping in the dark on what it wants to do with livestock in the country. No clear directions thus no resolve.
“CEMA had a significant reach and impact on the rural sector of the economy. It also had positive benefits to communities but these were essentially cut off when the CEMA trading functions were shut down,” Mr Wale argued.”
Copyright @ 2018, Solomon Star news.
