Opposition leader suggest intiatives to deal with price rise in the country

Opposition Leader Manasseh Sogavare calls on the government to address the continuing increase in the price of rice head on.

Mr Sogavare says although the World Bank has initiated actions to address the global increase of food commodities, the government should initiate and put in motion domestic actions to stabilise the price of rice.

He says many people living in urban centres who cannot make gardens depend heavily on rice.

Mr Sogavare says the government has been very silent on the issue.

He suggests that government should take alternatives such as the nationalisation of the importation of certain important commodities, resort to building large scale rice farming, seek other rice buyers from Asian countries instead of Australia.

"A quick solution to this would be to look for an alternative source of rice. Right now we are importing the bulk of rice from Australia. The exchange rate is very killing, we cannot stuck with one supplier of rice. You need to look at alternative sources. In our view, infact our knowledge that there are cheaper in Asia. We can immediately stop importing rice from Australia and switch to Asia."

Source: SIBC