29 August 2014
From the High Commissioner's Column
Last week I visited Brisbane for the sixth annual Australia Solomon Islands Business Forum. It’s a major event on the business calendar and a great opportunity for potential foreign investors to get an understanding of the business environment in Solomon Islands. Prime Minister Lilo also attended, for the third successive year. It sends a very good signal to the business community to see political leaders engaging with them and listening to their concerns.
The forum drew an impressive audience of businesspeople from both Solomon Islands and Australia. We heard about plans by Carnival Cruises Australia to commence regular passenger cruises to Solomon Islands from late 2016. This looks like a golden opportunity to accelerate the growth of tourism in this country, but it’s an opportunity that will need to be seized by government, business and the community. As the Carnival executive told the forum, if passengers have a good experience in Solomon Islands, the ships will keep coming.
Last week also saw the launch of Australia’s new economic diplomacy strategy. It’s built around the idea that the best way to lift people out of poverty is through economic growth, open trade and private sector investment. That fact might seem obvious to anyone with more than a passing interest in history or economics. But it’s surprising how easy it is to lose sight of simple truths sometimes. Our new economic diplomacy strategy will ensure Australia’s foreign policy, trade policy and aid policy are all built around this central principle and are all pulling in the same direction.
What does that mean for Solomon Islands? Well, we’re still working on that. But over time I expect you’ll see our aid program here focus more on helping to build an enabling environment for business, trade and investment. Australian aid has played, and continues to play, an important role in stabilising Solomon Islands, supporting the basic functions of government and alleviating poverty. And we’ll keep doing all those things. But we’ll also be looking for new opportunities to help the private sector grow, invest and create jobs. In the long run, we know that it’s only the private sector that can create wealth. We need only look at modern China, where hundreds of millions have been pulled out of poverty not thanks to aid, but thanks to investment, trade and a more open economy.
Two weeks ago, I had the great pleasure to open the G’Day Solomon Islands Great Debate. It was wonderful to hear students’ visions for the future of Solomon Islands. Students from Betikama Adventist College, Saint Nicholas High School, Saint Joseph’s Tenaru High School and Selwyn College debated two topics: “Solomon Islands must become independent from aid to be a truly sovereign nation” and “The most important thing for Solomon Islands’ prosperity is to empower women and girls”.
I was impressed to see that both topics led to robust discussions. Betikama took out the first debate on the subject of foreign aid with the key point that Solomon Islands would become a failed state without the sixty per cent of donor provided government revenue. Selwyn College won the second debate by arguing that economic development was actually the most important thing for Solomon Islands’ prosperity and that the country could achieve this by economically empowering everyone, boys, girls, men and women.
Our next big event will be the second G’Day Solomon Islands Fun Run, which will be held on Saturday 13 September. Watch this space over the coming days for more information.
Finally, I’d like to extend my personal thanks to all those in the community who provided support and condolences following the recent tragic death of our colleague and dear friend, Ed Smith. Ed was much loved by all in the High Commission and by many people in the community. His legacy here will be the amazing work he did to help thousands of young Solomon Islanders learn new skills, gain confidence and find a job.
The High Commissioner's Column is published every two weeks in the Solomon Star Newspaper