NCRA HAS ACHIEVED MOST OF WHAT IT WANTS THIS YEAR: LILO

NCRA has achieved most of what it wanted to this year, says the Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo.

Prime Minister Lilo made the statement today, during thirty-sixth Independence Celebrations at the Lawson Tama grounds in Honiara.

The elaborate ceremony was witnessed by Crown Ministers, Government backbenchers and members of the diplomatic corps, and aid agencies, and members of the public.

Delivering his keynote address at the ceremony, Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo said the NCRA Government had achieved most of what it set out to do this year.

Prime Minister Lilo also said the NCRA Government became ‘fairly stable’ since he took leadership of the coalition in late 2011.

“Fellow citizens since I became the Leader of NCRA in late 2011 the government has been fairly stable. There have been several occasions where the stability of the coalition have been tested both on the floor of parliament and at cabinet level, but we have been able to keep control of government under the coalition, and it is my view that without that stability we would not have been able to focus our attention consistently on key reform agenda and developments that we have achieved.”

The Prime Minister also told the Independence Celebration gathering that the Government achieved most of what it wanted to achieve this year.

“For examples, we have successfully achieved through consistency the Political Parties Integrity Act, the Solomon Islands National University transition, the RAMSI transition, the Development and Renewable Energy project, the Development of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative framework, the reform in Public Finance Administration and the Aviation Infrastructure reform and the programme for mobilisation of  customary land. We could have achieved more, but I would also say that without stability we would not even come closer to the work that we have achieved as a government.”

The official theme for the thirty-sixth Independence Anniversary celebrations was “Building the Fundamentals for a strong Government and Empowered People”.