THE Solomon Islands National University (SINU) Vice Chancellor, Professor Transform Aqorau, says he wants to ensure “good governance” through the national tertiary institution.
To achieve this, he said he wants the Australian Government to support the reform for good governance in the nation.
He told Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific and Minister for Defence, Pat Conroy, when the latter visited the SINU Kukum Campus yesterday that Australia can support SINU by achieving this reform endeavour.
Dr Aqorau said this reform agenda is the first thing that he wants the people and government of Australia to join him and SINU to achieve for the good of Solomon Islands and its citizens.
“I believe good governance is critical to the development of any country,” he said.
Dr Aqorau is reputed for ensuring good governance when he was with the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) headquarters where he helped shaped the Pacific sub-regional Tuna Fisheries organisation.
He said he found good governance very critical and that he wants SINU to be oasis of good governance in Solomon Islands.
“Even if everyone around us is failing, the national government, the provincial government and others, I want this university to stand out for the future of Solomon Islands.
“I need your support Minister (Pan Conroy) to be able to take us that far because good governance leads us to accreditations and will make the university better so that we all can be proud off,” he underscored.
He added that SINU’s goal is to be able to create an institution where young men and women are able to work in Australia and New Zealand.
The SINU VC further added that 20 years after RAMSI came to restore law and order, the responsibility of Solomon Islands is to build for the future.
Dr Aqorau said many young men and women in Solomon Islands are looking to Australia and NZ as their economical hope and that he believes that the Solomon Islands-Australia relationship will grow from strength to strength.
“I have confidence with the SI and Australia relationship, not that it is a built in institution but it is being built by the young men and women who are moving out from our villages and our towns to serve rural areas in Australia,” he said. Minister Conroy’s visit to SINU was an inaugural one for which Dr Aqorau and the institution were proud proud of because they were able to interact with him in a Question & Answer session after the formal speeches.
By LACHLAN EDDIE HOE
Solomon Star, Honiara
