Prime Minister Matthew Wale has declared that his Government’s economic reform agenda is aimed at ending what he describes as decades of “elite capture”, where the nation’s wealth has benefited a small group while ordinary Solomon Islanders continue to bear the cost.
Addressing Parliament today, Prime Minister Wale said the GREAT Coalition was determined to transform the country’s economic model by ensuring the nation’s natural resources create opportunities for its own people rather than leaving the country in raw form for others to profit from.
“Government vision was to move away from a system where wealth ‘left our shores raw while our people watched prosperity sail past their villages’ towards one where resources are developed by Solomon Islanders, on Solomon Islands soil, for Solomon Islander families,” Wale stated.
“Put simply, it is a full shift in the economy of Solomon Islands, a deliberate turning of the whole machinery of Government away from the old model,” he added.
“Towards a new model in which the harvest of our land and seas is worked by Solomon Islander hands, on Solomon Islands soil, for Solomon Islander families.”
Wale said for many years the management of our forests has been the clearest proof of elite capture: stripped islands, a few enriched, and the landowning village left with stumps and silt.
“That era ends under this Government.
“Round log exports will be phased out by 2032, matched by downstream processing and a fair share of benefits for customary landowners.
“To those who have grown rich on the plunder of our forests, I say what I have said before: not anymore.”
The Prime Minister said Solomon Islands’ economic challenges were not inevitable but were the result of decisions made, and opportunities missed, by successive governments over the past four decades.
“What choice has made; choice can unmake,” he said.
Wale said the country’s narrow economic base was driven by a system that allowed a small number of people to benefit disproportionately from national resources.
“I have named the disease before and I name it again: elite capture – the quiet arrangement by which the wealth of this nation is harvested by a narrow few while the ordinary family carries the cost,” he said.
“Every reform in this Speech is directed against this evil that has plagued our nation.”
The Prime Minister said the GREAT Coalition’s policies reflected the aspirations of Solomon Islanders gathered from communities, markets, churches and through the democratic process.
He said the Government’s long-term ambition was for Solomon Islands to become a middle-income country within the next two to three decades, driven not by external assistance but by the responsible development of the nation’s own resources.
“Not by the charity of others, but by the disciplined harvest of our own God-given wealth,” he said.
However, Wale said the success of the Government’s programme would ultimately be judged by whether it improved the lives of ordinary citizens.
He said the measure of progress would be whether it delivered for families struggling with the cost of living, farmers and fishermen in the provinces, and young people seeking employment after completing their education.
“That is the standard against which the people will judge us all,” the Prime Minister said.
Parliament continues this week.
