THE Minister for Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS), Wayne Ghemu has hailed the Provincial Government Strengthening Programme (PGSP) as the driver of change in the Ministry of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS).
He said the PGSP enabled the MPGIS to break the cycle of ‘no capacity, no responsibility and no resources,’ which the Provincial Governments found themselves entangled with for decades.
Minister Ghemu expressed these sentiments when contributing to the debate on the Sine Die Motion debate in Parliament last month.
He therefore expressed appreciation to the donor community for their support under Phase One of the PGSP up until present, saying, “donor contributions have been very instrumental in kickstarting the PGSP.”
“My special thanks go to the development partners namely, the Australia and New Zealand governments, the United Nations Capital Development Fund and the European Union. I must also thank the Japanese International Cooperation Agency for their support,” he added.
Minister Ghemu said the collective efforts between MPGIS and its donor stakeholders through the PCDF have led to remarkable achievements in improving the governance and infrastructure in the provinces.
“Mr Speaker Sir, a lot of things have been done and achieved under this programme,” he added.
He said under the PCDF, MPGIS successfully delivered 1700 ‘solid’ projects at the total cost of SBD $335.9 million since the inception of the programme from 2008 until 2024.
Minister Ghemu said Western Province delivered about 388 projects, followed by Central Islands Province and Malaita Province with 264 projects each, Choiseul Province with 195 projects, Makira-Ulawa Province with 103 projects, Isabel Province with 94 projects, Guadalcanal Province with 78 projects, Temotu Province with 186 projects and Renbel Province with 90 projects.
He said of all the SBD $335.9 million worth of projects, 49 per-cent went towards education and health infrastructures.
Elaborating on the financing on the Capital Development Fund financing for the nine provinces. Minister Ghemu said the current commitment of Solomon Islands Government to the Provincial Capital Development Funds stands at SBD $30 million per annum.
He said in addition to this, the World Bank integrated economic resilient projects is committing grants worth SBD$84 million to the PCDF for the next four years.
“Mr Speaker Sir, you may also recall that on 1st of November this year (2024), I formally launched the SBD$128 million Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCal) funded by the government of New Zealand and the European Union. This project will fund the PCDF to the tune of SBD$14.5 million dollars annually for the next four years starting this year. So, it already started,” Minister Ghemu said.
By IAN LADDS OSO
Solomon Star, Honiara
