MCILI Permanent Secretary (Acting) Mr Hunter Masuguria

THE Ministry of Commerce, Industries, Labour and Immigration (MCILI) wants to see strong collaboration among all relevant stakeholders that play vital roles towards development and promotion of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Solomon Islands.

Permanent Secretary (Acting), Hunter Masuguria said MCILI is a leading Government Agency that is mandated to coordinate the implementation of government policies, and to play major role on M&E to ensure there is a significant growth of MSMEs in Solomon Islands.

To leverage the implementation of MSME policy and strategy, MCILI is currently working on establishing a number of strategies.

It is working on establishing the MSME Advisory Support Centre which will be an appropriate and sustainable delivery system.

“It will be manned by or be able to hire consultants and advisers who know how to assess the requirements of SMEs or enterprises and design and implement interventions that will meet these needs,” said the Acting PS.

In the creation of the SME(s) M&E MIS for that matter, they want to compile, organise and store all National SME definitions survey data records into a proper database system and facilitate the dissemination of relevant information on various industrial and commercial activities under the newly developed MSME definition for Solomon Islands to other co-development players in the country and especially to assist future development strategies programmes to the rural people in the province.

It hopes to establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SICCI) which is forthcoming.

The ministry also wishes to establish the MSME Finance Working Group in partnership with the CBSI.

In terms of developing related policies and legislation, MCILI is currently working on enactment of SME Policy Bill, Review of the Cooperative Act, Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Legislation and national Industrialization policy.

“On top of that, MCILI would really want to see a strong collaboration amongst all relevant stakeholders that play vital roles towards development and promotion of MSMEs in Solomon Islands,” says the Acting Permanent Secretary.