Solomon Islands has struggled to attract the quality and size of investments that would be game changers for the economy.

Opposition Leader Matthew Wale highlighted this in Parliament recently during his debate speech on the SEZ Bill 2024.

Wale said beyond the earlier pioneer industries of Taiyo, Guadalcanal Palm Oil Plantations Ltd (GPPOL), and others in their various iterations, Solomon Islands has hit a bottleneck in seeing quality sizeable investments in the country. 

He said the issues that conspire to cause the bottleneck are important to understand to inform policy responses. 

“It is right that government should be concerned about the basis for this struggle, and seek to address the policy issues associated with it,” Wale said.

The Opposition Leader said it is important to also bear in mind that Solomon Islands is in competition with other nation states for the foreign investment dollar. 

“If we do not appreciate that we are competing with other economies for foreign investment, then our attitude towards foreign investors will be one of callous disregard for what would entice them to invest their money in our economy,” he said.

Wale adds on the social level, if we do not appreciate that we are in competition for foreign investment dollar, we risk a racist attitude towards foreign investors that undermines any efforts to attract investment. 

The Opposition Leader said it is important that we appreciate investments, whether foreign or local, to make business profits. 

He said our approach must be one to make it possible and foreseeable for investors to make reasonable business profits. 

“Ultimately, it is profits that is the one sure incentive to attract foreign investment to our economy. If a business would be profitable without fiscal incentives, private investment will jump at the opportunity,” he said.

However, Wale said if a business will only be profitable with fiscal incentives, then that’s the situation the SEZ Bill is designed to induce. 

“That will be an important determination going forward, as this Bill is implemented. 

“At the policy level, our attitude must also change from the current posture that implies that foreign investors owe us something leading us to begrudge their presence in our midst, to one that cherishes foreign investment,” he said.