We need genuine foreign investment

TRANSPARENCY Solomon Islands is asking the question – do we have sufficient laws and policies to attract legitimate foreign investment? The Democratic Coalition for Change Government (DCCG) has announced a number of policies designed to attract new foreign investors to our shores. How can we ensure that the investors we attract will generate benefits for…

Bauxite saga raises many questions

UNDER the Mining Act, an operator is only allowed to hold three tenements at a time. Anything other than that is illegal. So why did PT Mega Bintang Borneo of Indonesia reportedly owned 11 tenements under different names but with the same directors and yet continued to be allowed to operate in the country? Surely,…

Sustaining rural communities

Dear Editor – With 80 percent of the population living in the rural areas of the Solomon Islands and largely dependent on traditional subsistence farming methods, it has been my aim in recent weeks to focus on alternative sources of obtaining income and to provide added food security. A broad definition of well-being encompasses three…

Major economic victory

Dear Editor – With such a huge surplus of $364 million for only the first three months of this year, it would be $1,456 million,( nearly one and half billion dollars ) by the end of the year. Great news indeed! The Minister of Finance hailed this achievement so far as a great success and…

MPS tax free award

800×600 Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} Dear Editor – The reason given by PEC to defend the tax free award they had awarded the 50 MPs to…

Please amend the mining Act

Dear Editor – One of the issues that became very controversial and did catch the spotlight of the media a few years ago was the Gold Ridge landowners royalty payment ending up in the wrong hands. That very scaring situation had not only left the concerned landowners amazed with disbelief but had also raised a…

National carrier takes a major leap forward

SOLOMON Airlines took a major step this week with the launch of its new and direct route to and from Sydney, Australia. The flight leaves Honiara on Mondays, returning the next day. There are several reasons why this direct route is important for Solomon Airlines, Solomon Islands, and Australia. Firstly, Sydney is the commercial hub…

Law and grace

Dear Editor – Confusion had engulfed the Christian denomination when the above mention, law and grace are a spotlight throughout the media. Since the purpose for the church (exclesia called out ones) is to reconcile the lost to our God and Father. The opposite is evident, scattering and not gathering. It seems that we the…

Mobile banking

Dear Editor – First of all I want to thank ANZ and its partner Telekom for promoting and bringing banking closer to our Rural Village people. To those who actually roll out the ANZ goMoney project, I would say, you have done a very good job. You have professionally implementing the project successfully and everyone…