SOLOMON IS: World Bank to open new Honiara office
Updated
The World Bank is scaling up its operations in the Solomon Islands, with work underway to set up a new office in the capital, Honiara. A delegation led by the Bank's vice president for the Pacific has visited the city to meet local stakeholders. The visit marks a significant thaw in relations between the World Bank and Honiara.
Presenter: Evan Wasuka
Speakers: World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Region James Adams
WASUKA: World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Region James Adams says the bank is increasing its focus on Solomon Islands, starting with a new office in Honiara. Adams says that following successful talks with the government, the Bank has been given a green light to scale up operations in the country.
ADAMS: We really had three intentions as a team. One was to talk to the new government about their development plans, and how they wanted to over the next two years of their tenure, work with the Bank and work with other donor agencies on improving the development effort in Solomon Islands. The second was that we're actually expecting to open an office in Solomon Islands. The Bank is expanding its presence in the region, and we are looking forward in the next couple of months to opening the office and having what we call a country manager, a person responsible for the Bank's program, resident in Honiara. We've found, our experience is that when we have that type of presence, it very much facilitates both our relationship with the government but also more broadly the work we want to do with a whole set of important actors - the business community, civil society, and other people working on development in a given country. And so we do expect to scale up our presence. And finally, it's given us an opportunity to meet a range of stakeholders.
WASUKA: Adams say the bank is supportive of the government's rural development policy but warns that Solomon Islands will face challenges in the future with the demise of the country's main revenue earner, logging.
ADAMS: Logging today is providing an important part of the government revenue base. And the worry is that if that's being done on a non-sustainable basis, not only is there a contribution to global warming but the second issue of course is that at some point, those revenues and those resources simply won't be available to the government. And so we've had discussions about the importance of thinking through the forestry issue and making sure there's control over where logging is being done, and hopefully the analysis which would drive some appropriate approach that would drive sustainable logging in Solomon Islands.
As the government looks ahead, if it wants to move forward with a more aggressive program in delivering rural services, it is going to have to increase the revenue base, including mobilising some additional resources from donors in order to do that, to make that sustainable. The government's clearly concerned about the sustainability issues. When it looks at the question of foreign direct investment, I think this is a government that wants to reach out and encourage more investment. But I think it realises that in order to do that, it has to change some of the policies and programs within the country to be successful. So I think there's a balance between real success over the last three and four years, but also the recognition that challenges remain, and those challenges have to be addressed to sustain the progress that's been made.
WASUKA: The World Bank was among many international bodies that pulled out Solomon Islands during the period of ethnic conflict. The Bank's return marks improved relations between Honiara and one of the world's most influential financial institutions.
