Minister Kopu urges MPs to embrace partnership
Minister for the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) Honourable Duddley Kopu has urged his colleague Members of Parliament (MPs) to embrace partnership with relevant stakeholders to build the resilience of constituencies.
Minister Kopu was contributing to the debate on the 2023 Appropriation Bill 2022 in Parliament, last week.
He said constituencies through their elected leaders should take this course to build the resilience of our respective constituencies by encouraging investments in small and big ways, in order for us to achieve sustainable economic growth.
Minister for MRD Hon Duddley Kopu
“…we cannot achieve this overnight and alone but we should value the importance of partnership and collaborations. I believe that we can achieve more by working together and coordinating better with all our stakeholders and key partners,” he emphasized.
At the same time, Minister Kopu urged his fellow MPs to align their annual work plans for next year with the theme of the 2023 budget.
The 2023 National Budget theme is, “Together, Build, Invest and Recover for a resilient and sustainable economy.”
On the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Minister Kopu said that despite the many negative perceptions against the fund, it is one of very few funds that directly touched the lives of the most disadvantaged communities in the rural areas.
“I strongly believe that if all 50 constituencies implement their CDF allocations according to the budget theme, we should be able to achieve the desired outcomes,” he said.
CDF’s are allocations of public development funds provided to Constituencies to support rural development initiatives as per constituency development priorities.
According to the Solomon Islands Constituency Development Fund Act 2013 (s.5) ‘funds may be allocated for development purposes to individuals, group income-generating projects, or community projects’.
MRD vision is to ensure that all Solomon Islanders become meaningfully participated in development activities to improve their social and economic livelihood.
ENDS///
MRD Media release