Government to allocate 50million dollars for rural development

Finance Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu says that the government's bottom-up approach to development will change the next budget process.

And he envisages the creation by Parliament of a Millennium Development Fund to meet the government’s rural development focus.

The Government Communications Unit quotes Mr Ulufa’alu as saying that under the millennium funding there would be three sectors covering the legal, productive sector and infrastructure and social services.

He says the legal sector would involve the establishment, capacity building, institutional strengthening and good governance.

Mr Ulufa'alu says the productive or the private sector will operate on the principle of diversity in unity for nation building and infrastructure and social services would be based on the principle of interdependence.

He says the Millennium Funding proposal already had two components in place namely the Republic of China Micro-Project targeting the productive sector and the Rural Constituency Development Fund targeting infrastructure and social services.

Mr Ulufa'alu says that the allocation for this package is 50 million dollars.

He says financing of the productive sector will be on credit basis through credit unions, savings and loans.

Mr Ulufa'alu says bigger projects will be funded through the Investment Corporation of Solomon Islands as trustee of the 50 constituencies.

Source: SIBC