BY ALEX DADAMU
AUSTRALIA will offer financial support of SBD 900 Million to Solomon Islands through a whole range of different programmes at the end of its current financial year on 30th June 2022.
This was revealed by the Australian High Commissioner to Solomon Islands Dr Lachlan Strahan when speaking to the Media about the Solomon Islands Infrastructure Program (SIIP) – Australia’s flagship 10-year SBD1.5 billion partnership with Solomon Islands on Monday June 14.
Dr Strahan said Infrastructure, forms one part of our much broader development programme in Solomon Islands.
“We have our third largest development programme in the world, here in Solomon Islands, third only to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, which are bigger. Those countries that have much bigger populations – It’s on a per capita basis.
“We spend, of course, much more here over this financial year, and Australia’s financial runs until the end of this month, we will be spending around 900 million, on a whole range of different programmes that spans everything from what we do in health and education, all the way across the justice, governments and of course, economics, rural development, and infrastructure,” Dr Strahan said.
He further revealed over the last 10 years, they have spent around 2 billion on infrastructure in the country.
Dr Strahan said over the coming years they will be allocating another 3 billion SBD to infrastructure.
“A very big component of that, of course, is this programme, the Solomon Islands infrastructure programme. That was launched last year.
“This is our main infrastructure programme.
“The whole aim of the infrastructure programme is to provide infrastructure, which is well planned, well implemented, and then well managed,” he pointed out.
Dr Strahan however stressed that everything must be done, and it is done in partnership.
So we’re not going to turn up as it were and impose on Solomon Islands things that it doesn’t want and hasn’t asked for.
“So getting this partnership right involves a lot of sitting down, talking together, listening, and making decisions, and then getting credit. So everything we do across all of those programmes is about responding to the identify needs, and priorities of Solomon Islands,” Dr Strahan stressed.
