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Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Solomon government announces multi-million financial scheme to rural areas

The Solomon Islands Government has announced a multi-million dollar financial scheme that would provide loans to businesses in rural areas.

Finance Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo told Parliament yesterday that the scheme will help share the risk of providing loans to rural based businesses.

He said government will deposit 10-million dollars into an account at the Central Bank and the scheme will be administered by CBSI and will operate through the commercial banks.

Mr Darcy said government will not be involved in the operational issues beyond providing seed money for the scheme.

The Finance Minister said government will also be conducting training for owners of rural business in the months ahead.

Mr Darcy said government will be supporting the expansion of banking services into rural areas, including micro-credit services.

" Shortly after the budget, we will invite registered financial institutions to submit proposals, describing how they intend to reach rural people. Government will help share the cost of these initiatives for a limited time period. This house will agree Mr speaker that this government is taking very important steps to avoid the mistakes of the past. We are taking actions to expand financial services and infrastructure of existing financial institutions in the country."

Source: SIBC

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