Friday 15 May 2009, 12.30pm
Interview: Solomon Islands Broadcasting Commission
Subjects: Visit; Solomon Islands aid.
SIBC: Sir, firstly welcome to Solomon Islands. Can you tell us what the reason is for you coming over at this time, in particular with regards to the developments happening in the country, for example the Partnership Agreement?
Mr Kerr: Thank you Charles. The principal reason is to attend the Forum Minister Standing Committee meeting that supervises the work of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands or RAMSI. Today is a really historic day because it cements the agreement between Solomon Islands and RAMSI. The Partnership agreement that has been working through the advisers and at Government levels has gone now to Cabinet in Solomon Islands and been approved and it will be reported to the Leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum when they meet in August and endorsed there. This is a clear statement of a long-term commitment continuing funding from Australia for the RAMSI initiative plus a framework agreed between RAMSI and the Solomon Islands about how that progress will be continued. It's a pretty clear statement of both the ongoing importance of the commitments that were made to the Solomon Islands by the Forum in setting up the RAMSI initiative. It shows that it is still relevant. Obviously RAMSI will change over time and ultimately of course Australia will be giving much more weight to its bilateral relationships, shifting as the Solomon Islands recovers and consolidates the progress which RAMSI was designed to bring about. RAMSI will phase down and our normal bilateral relationships will become more important. But there is still obviously a very important task for RAMSI to undertake and our Budget, announced in Parliament this week, confirmed four years funding for the ongoing work of RAMSI out to 2013.
The FMSC meeting also gave me a good opportunity to visit the Solomon Islands. I have -met with the Acting Prime Minister, Fred Fono, to discuss important bilateral issues, support for example to an initiative in Malaita to rehabilitate cocoa plantations and additional road funding that has been brought forward. These are part of the bilateral program that we are going to continue to expand and there is additional commitment to that. But the real reason that brought me here is to participate in the Ministerial meeting that will give guidance to the work of RAMSI into the future and pass it to Leaders for their approval.
SIBC: The Australian Budget had just gone through Parliament this week. What's the Australian Government's support to Solomon Islands in terms of assistance?
Mr Kerr: Well the Budget this year confirmed our commitment to increase Budget support for development assistance and as part of that we will be able to provide additional funding to the Solomon Islands through the bilateral program, in the order of A$5 million Australian dollars. But we need to work through to make sure that our commitments there are agreed. We're working in a framework agreement, a bilateral agreement where we are cooperating with the Government to identify priorities
One of the things I was able to do in meeting with Acting Prime Minister Fono, responding to advocacy from Prime Minister Sikua to our Prime Minister, was to announce A$3.5 million or SBD18-20 million for this cocoa rehabilitation project on Malaita. We've already spent seven or eight million Australian dollars and we're bringing forward an additional million dollars for road works on Malaita. We're particularly concerned about making sure that we don't just spend assistance money in Guadalcanal or in Honiara, to ensure that it is able to be seen as supporting development opportunities right across the whole of the Solomon Islands. Prime Minister Sikua was emphatic that Australia needed to consider the circumstances of Malaita that has a good proportion of the population of Solomon Islands but less economic lift off at the moment. So we want to work with the priorities of the Solomon Islands Government and will continue to do that through our bilateral program.
Whilst the consolidation of the RAMSI programs continues, we will be lifting our game bilaterally and continuing to work as we give emphasis to our Australia-Solomon Islands relationship. The regional support through the RAMSI initiative will go along parallel to this to make sure the core elements of the mandate that was given to the Leaders by RAMSI is still fulfilled but in a way that winds down as Solomon Islands can stand up. In other words when Solomon Islands gains the security and stability and effectiveness in areas that RAMSI is operating, RAMSI will slowly phase out and the normal country to country relationships become the way we do our business. But we're not retreating from RAMSI. We've got four years funding which means its here for a period where everyone can plan confidently. We work on a four year budget cycle so it is very clear that RAMSI isn't going to disappear quickly so any fears that might have been held there can be put aside and any worries that RAMSI's mission would not be clear can be put aside because we've now got a very clear agreement through the partnership which says that RAMSI and the Solomon Islands have sat down and agreed precisely how they wish to move forward into the future.
SIBC: The economic crisis is hitting hard on Australia as well as the Solomon Islands. Why is Australia so keen on increasing its aid to Solomon Islands when it has problems at home to solve?
Mr Kerr: The global economic crisis is hitting every country but we know that a fragile and broken Solomon Islands will in the end be more costly than one that we support to recovery. And that's the same everywhere. We committed ourselves before the last election to increasing the proportion of our Budget going in overseas development assistance from 0.32 percent to 0.5 percent of gross national income. Our budget has reflected a relatively modest increase, perhaps not as much as some advocated in the aid community would have wished, but its still on track to meet those commitments. And why do we do that? We do that because a healthy region, a strong series of countries in our Pacific neighbourhood, is in our long-term interest and of course the national interest of Solomon Islands and every other country in the Pacific.
There's an element of good will but fundamentally underlying it is a very hard-headed assessment that we live in a region of neighbours and if our neighbours become unable to provide effective governance and fell under the same kind of crisis the Solomon Islands encountered during its troubles then ultimately the only neighbour around to pick up the pieces is our country. So we've got a big national interest in continuing to support the strongest possible self reliance and competence of our Pacific neighbours.
SIBC: Thank you Mr Kerr.
Mr Kerr: Thank you
Media inquiries: Mr Kerr's office - 02 6277 4991
[an error occurred while processing this directive]