SPEECH BY PRIME MINISTER HON MANASSEH SOGAVARE MP AT THE LAUNCH OF THE DCCG POLICY FRAMEWORK Hon Speaker, Hon Chief Justice, Hon Minsters, Leader of Opposition, Hon Members of Parliament, Members of the Diplomatic Corp, senior government officials, friends, ladies and gentlemen. Let me first of all thank you for coming to be with us this morning. You were invited to attend this morning’s event because you are a key stakeholder and you need to be informed of my Government’s policy priorities for the next four years. Today, I am pleased to publicly announce my Government’s priority policies accompanied by a matrix detailing how these priority policies have been translated into substantive development programmes. Let me point out at the outset that these policies and programmes are indeed living documents. We have an open economy and it is important that our policies and development programmes do reflect the changing challenges to our internal economy presented by the changing dynamics of the world economy. Solomon Islands, as we have witnessed in April 2014, is vulnerable to natural disasters and for which Government, any Government, unavoidably has to restore public goods and services and to support the return of affected people back to their normal life. My Government will be vigilant against these changing circumstances and will not hesitate to change our policy priorities, we are warranted to protect our economy, our investments, and the wellbeing of our people. Like any other new Government, the Democratic Coalition for Change (DCC) Government has put together a set of priority development policies that are reflective of the priorities of political parties in the DCC group. While the genesis of our policy priorities may have been differed, the DCC group was overwhelmingly convinced that our economy needs a bigger push to achieve and sustain our economic growth prospect for 2015 and beyond at no less than 5%. With high annual population growth and inflationary rates, we need to sustain our economic growth rate at more than 5% so we can at least maintain our standard of living. It is against this backdrop that the DCC Government is placing policy emphasis on two development fronts. The first relates to sectoral reform and the second relates to fundamental reform. Central to the sectoral reform agenda is an emphasis on the productive and economic and finance sectors. The productive sector is the front line sector to stimulate our economic development. With declining economic activities in logging and the uncertainty as to when mining activities will begin at the Gold Ridge, it is incumbent on my Government that other productive players like the tourism industry, fisheries and agriculture, infrastructure, mining and energy, education and health and medical services are stimulated and supported to sustain growth. The details of the programmes to stimulate and grow this productive sector can be found in the Matrix of development programmes supporting the DCC Government policy priorities. These can be found in the document we are distributing today. All these development programmes will be executed by the relevant ministries in Government. The Economic and Finance sector is an important sector in our sectoral reform agenda. Clearly, we want to put in place good economic and finance governance policies to ensure that the financial sector play a stimulating role in growing our economy. Capital must move to where comparative advantages are and the financial sector must be efficient in facilitating the movement of capital to where they are most needed for productive economic activities. The DCC Government is under no illusion that the fiscal policy is the greatest stimulator of our economy. Prudent fiscal management is therefore an unavoidable part of my Government’s economic management strategy. To date, we seem to be getting worse in the way we manage public funds notwithstanding the enactment of the new Public Financial Management Act in 2014. Let me make it unequivocally clear that I want this problem to be addressed as soon as possible. I want more stringent accountability measures put in place to ensure that every cents and dollars of public moneys are accounted for. And where a public officer or member of the public is found to be flirting with this requirement to be investigated and prosecuted immediately. My Government has zero tolerance for the poor management of public moneys and assets, and we will do everything in our power to safeguard public funds. The second emphasis of the DCC Government is to pursue and execute fundamental reform programmes. This is a critical segment of our DCC policies and I want to explain these policies with more clarity. The collective goal of our fundamental reform programmes is to create confidence in our economy by creating an enabling environment for economic development goals to be achieved, as well as for our people to benefit optimally from the fruits of economic growth. There are two central themes emphasized in these programmes. The first relates to the pursuit of good governance while the second relates to the evasive goal of opening up our customary lands for economic development and for landowners to fully benefit from the exploit of their tribal lands. As you would see from the document we are distributing, we have a long agenda for the achievement of good governance. We are committed to strengthen our integrity institutions including the Leadership Code Commission, Office of the Ombudsman, and the Parliamentary Entitlement Committee. We are determined to fight corruption head-on and we would be inviting the relevant civil organisations to join us in this endeavor. A comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy will be developed; an Anticorruption legislation will be enacted; and an Independent Commission Against Corruption will be established; all as essential elements of our determination to fight against corruption. We are determined to pursue and continue the political reform agenda that started from the last Government which will include the review of the Political Parties Integrity Act and the strengthening of the electoral process as well as to search for an electoral system that is desirous by our people and a step further to deepen democratic values in the Solomon Islands. We are also fully committed to continue the process of nation healing and nation building and to finally adopt our federal system of Government during this term of the DCC Government. On customary land reform, we are determined to pursue the recording and registration of tribal lands beginning from this year. This is a significant project and is expected to be a long drawn out project. But it is critically important that we now make a beginning in the implementation of this project given its potential to unleash the economic development potential of our country with accompanying benefits to our people at the rural areas and to our urban centres. With more job opportunities created stemming from the development of our tribal lands more people are likely to return to (or people wanting to stay back in) their provinces putting less and less pressure therewith on infrastructural facilities in urban centres. While we are set to begin this project from this year, it is important that I make it clear that the approach to this project is NOT to force landowners to formally register their tribal lands. While Government is desirous to hasten the recording and registration of tribal lands at national economic interest areas around the country, other tribal landowners may on their own volition request for their tribal land to be registered. The right of landowners to their tribal lands will always be respected and guaranteed. However, we are confident that soon many landowners will find it beneficial to avail some of their tribal lands for economic development thereby opening up a stream of income for them and their tribal members. All fundamental reform programmes will be driven from within the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. However, I should stress that while the execution role of these programmes is retained within the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, our staff will work closely with all ministries to implement development programmes. For example, our staff will work closely with the Ministry of Lands in the implementation of customary land reform programmes as the programmes in the short to medium term will eventually be absorbed into that ministry. Ladies and gentlemen, although I have talked at length about our DCC policies and programmes, I have not forgotten that strategy and plans are only as good as their implementation. I am fully conscious of the fact that no matter how good is our intention as reflected in our strategy and programmes, if we cannot effectively implement them than our strategic plan is as poor or bad as our implementation outcome. Government is equally placing emphasis on putting in place an effective executing management regime to oversee the delivery of these policies and development programmes. An essential requirement for this process is that all responsible ministries will be required to develop a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework to assess and measure the implementation of development programmes in respective ministries. The M&E process will generate its own reporting system to regularly check and address bottlenecks and to update Cabinet and relevant development partners on the progress of implementation. More details on these coordination processes will be clustered with the functions of the Policy Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, which will remain in-charge of overseeing the implementation of DCC Government policies. Fellow Solomon Islanders, I hope that I have clearly explained in the last few minutes where our policy focus will lead us in the next 4-years. My hope from here on, is that you will be able to own them, embrace them and that you will also find time to work with us, where necessary, in shaping our development programmes to be as effective as they can become. Development Partners and Diplomatic Commissions, I hope that by now you will realize what change the DCC Government professes to instill in our beloved country. My hope is that you will come on board to support our mission of change. Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, many thanks for coming to the launching of the DCC Government’s policy and strategies, today. My Government looks forward to working with you in making this nation a prosperous sovereign country and as an envy of the Pacific Region. God Bless Solomon Islands! TAGIO TUMAS
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 08:46:09 +0000
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