CHARTING FUTURE NEEDS COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY: PM SOGAVARE

Prime Minister and MP for East Choiseul Manasseh Sogavare. Photo credit: Parliament.

Prime Minister and MP for East Choiseul Manasseh Sogavare. Photo credit: Parliament.

The charting of the future of any country is a collective responsibility which requires active participation of the people.

Prime Minister Manasseh Damukana Sogavare said in a radio talkback show on SIBC today.

Speaking to SIBC audience across the country and those listening online through the Internet, Prime Minister Sogavare says he believes the charting of the country’s future is a collective responsibility.

“I believe that the charting of the future of any country is a collective responsibility which requires the active participation of the people who are effectively the government under the system of government that we adopt at independence.”

The Prime Minister says a designed way forward for Solomon Islands has to be cognizant of a predicament, which will need a collective approach in addressing the country’s problems.

“We, therefore, need to design a way forward that is cognizant of a predicament. This will need a collective approach in addressing our problems the government must not pretend that it has all the answers. We will need to ask serious questions to ourselves and adopt strategies which may not go down well with people who are only interested in advancing their parochial interest and use to government to achieve that interest. There must be a change in the attitude by key players including Members of Parliament as elective representatives of our people.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare says tourism is one very important sector his Government will be looking to address.

Speaking during radio talk show, this afternoon Mr. Sogavare says Government in the past has been focusing on unsustainable strategies like logging and mining for income.

But he says if the country is to address strategies where it is naturally strong, tourism is one.

The Prime Minister says he does not see why Solomon Islands cannot increase its annual number of tourists and boost its economy with tourism.

“We have good beaches and great places for tourism venues better than other places, but because they developed their island places well it attracts tourists. I don’t see why we cannot, it’s easy money you don’t need to do anything, just provide some infrastructure and programs to attract them into the country. And so you’ve hit the nail on the head as to the thinking of this government if we really need to seriously address these supply side strategies then those are the areas that we will address and tourism is one important sector.”

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