PM Manele opens National Economic Summit with a call to seriously grow the national economy

Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele opened the National Economic Summit currently underway in Honiara today with a call on key stakeholders to uncover innovative approaches to achieve a resilient, transformative and sustainable economic growth that embraces inclusive development that leaves no one behind.

The two days summit gathered key stakeholders from the private sector, state owned enterprises, development partners and provincial governments to dialogue with the National Government on driving the overall economic growth in Solomon Islands

The outcome of the summit will produce a clear policy direction to help the Government implement measures and to prioritize resources over the short to-medium term to achieve higher rates of sustainable growth in the post-pandemic recovery.

“This summit serves as a platform to present and summarize the current economic situation of our country, identify barriers that hinder productive growth, and collectively develop actionable strategies that will address these barriers and pave the way for transformative, sustainable socio-economic growth and inclusive development,” Manele said.

“I therefore call on all of us to work together and enhance collaborative partnership from all of us going forward, to ensure the outcomes of this summit is actioned,” the Prime Minister added.

Solomon Islands real GDP growth has been struggling to keep pace with the population growth and NDS objective 1 target of increasing the GDP growth rate to 5% by 2025 and reach 7% by 2030 and beyond.

The country has been historically dependent on a few sectors to drive economic growth. Logging as one of the key sectors has experienced a slow-down in volume compared to pre-covid-19 levels. The government’s heavily dependent on logging sector, poses a risk to the macroeconomic stability as it is one of key revenue and foreign exchange earnings.

Consequently, it is important to look into how the Government can diversify the economy and assist key sectors to address primary barriers to growth and promote growth in these sectors.

“We must foster an environment that nurtures resilient, transformative, and sustainable economic growth, while ensuring that development is inclusive and benefits all sectors of society.  This requires us to think innovatively, embrace new technologies, and explore untapped potential in sectors such as agriculture, mining, tourism, fisheries, and energy,” Manele said

The primary sector has the potential to offset revenue from the logging sector, however the government recognizes that enabling the environment to “Foster resilient, transformative, sustainable economic growth, and Inclusive Development” is paramount to move the economy forward and to achieve its goals under the National Development strategy 2016 to 2035.

The National Economic Summit is a key aspect of the government’s 100-day policy and is led by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and the Ministry of National Planning and Development Coordination.

The outcome of the summit will help the Government to formulate a framework on key thematic areas to address over the next four years and aligning them to the priorities of the Government.

ENDS///

Prime Minister Manele

Permanent Secretary of Finance and Treasury Mckinnie Dentana

Minister of National Planning and Development Coordination Hon. Rex Ramofafia

Finance Minister Manasseh Sogavare

Deputy Governor of CBSI Reynold Moveni