PRIME Minister Hon Manasseh Sogavare has cautioned Solomon Islands against the extreme idolisation of its customary practices else it will lag behind in terms of development.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day Land Reform Workshop in Honiara yesterday, Mr Sogavare said Solomon Islanders living in the 21st Century have a real challenge in their hands and that is to accept the change that will progress the country.
“As Solomon Islanders living in the 21st Century, we have a real challenge in our hands. We must be careful not to go to the extreme in idolising our customary practices that are clearly repugnant to the ideals of development,” Mr Sogavare said.
Prime Minister Sogavare said Solomon Islands as a sovereign nation is systematically losing the capacity to sustain an acceptable level of economic growth.
He said this indicates that the country is under-utilising its full potentials, let alone surviving in an environment of intense competition, it must be convinced that the only option left is to grow on the basis of trade and specialization.
“We must appreciate that in accepting the challenge to run our own affairs as a sovereign nation, we have consented to placing Solomon Islands as an independent competitor in the global scene and to be successful.
“This will not be possible without increased economic mobilization of land.
“In a predominantly subsistence Solomon Islands, as in other developing countries, land is relatively inelastic in supply compared to labour and capital and therefore it is important for the country to minimise the effects of any arrangements that restrict the availability of land by tackling them head-on.”
The Prime Minister said the process by which land is to be mobilised for economic activity is a challenging preposition in Solomon Islands.
He said banks as custodians of financial resources will not accept something less than the protection in law of an individual’s title to land but the individualisation of title to land is not allowed in custom.
“Therefore, a land registration policy that is based solely on economic rationales will not work in Solomon Islands. Of course with economic reasoning as the driving force, the process must involve the incorporation of a strategy that would enable Solomon Islanders to see that their right in custom is protected.
“This is the starting point of any programme to get Solomon Islanders to make the important decision to agree to participate in any land registration programme,” the Prime Minister said.
Prime Minister Sogavare said land reform is amongst the priorities of the Democratic Coalition for Change Government and that the convening of the workshop is timely given the fact that Solomon Islands is decades behind in addressing this single major hurdle to development.
The workshop brings together land reform experts from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Australia and Solomon Islands to help the Democratic Coalition for Change Government address the issue of land reform.