THE Central Bank of Solomon Islands launched their annual report of 2016 on May 19 at the Heritage Park Hotel.

The occasion kicked off on a keynote address by Central Bank governor, Mr Denton Rarawa.

He welcomed government officials, business house representatives, members of the Diplomatic Corp, CBSI board of directors and representatives from NGOs, media, women and youth groups.

The Hon Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, Opposition Leader Hon Jeremiah Manele and senior government officials were also present at the event.

In his opening remarks, Mr Rararwa said that the annual report is unique since it marks 40 years of central banking in the country.

“This report is extra special as it marks the forty years of central banking in Solomon Islands,” he said.

Mr Rarawa believes the country has made progress economically, politically and socially in the last 40 years.

He added that this progress was challenged by different factors namely; the Asian financial crisis, the global financial crisis, commodity price shocks, political instability, ethnic tension, rising demand for government services and increased corruption.

Mr Rarawa said what astounds him the most is that, despite the many challenges and crises the country experienced throughout the last 40 years, our people, communities, business houses and government have demonstrated firm determination and resilience to bounce back from whatever obstacles the country had encountered.

He mentioned that these experiences paved way for motivation for his theme “Building resilience for a vibrant and prosperous future in Solomon Islands”.

Mr Rarawa said that building resilience is a critical issue for the country as the country is ranked as one of the most vulnerable and fragile countries in the world.

In addition, he stated that building resilience does not only refer to preparing for natural disasters or taking mitigation and adaptation measures to deal with the impacts of climate change.

Mr Rarawa said the type of resilience building he refers to is much broader and one that is multi-faceted, multi-dimensional and cross cutting in nature.

“It is about enforcing our laws and regulations.

“It is about addressing our high population growth as much as tackling the rhinoceros beetle that is damaging our coconut trees.

“It is about assisting and supporting our clients when they are down on their knees,” he said.

Mr Rarawa proceeded on and discussed resilience in the export sector. He said that the country’s export sector is a major employing sector in the country and is dominated by round log exports which contributes to over 70 percent of our export earnings

“This heavy dependence on a single commodity leaves the country very vulnerable to what happens in this sector,” he said.

Speaking of the tourism sector, Mr Rarawa said that although growth is evident in the tourism sector, more work is needed.

He said that there needs to be more production of cocoa, palm oil, coconut and niche agriculture commodities.

Mr Rarawa towards the end of his speech elaborated on strategies significant to building resilience in the country.

He touched on elements of client-friendly policies, enforcement of laws and regulations and population growth.

Mr Rarawa said as part of the financial system they have a role to play in building resilience when it comes to their clients.

In this sense, he explains that as financial institutions they can be innovative and create client-friendly policies in the likes of initiatives like debt relief through temporary grace periods or lower interest rates, particularly for clients who have been seriously affected by shocks.

Mr Rarawa said that effective enforcement of our laws and regulations is a major weakness in our country and is undermining the country’s capacity to build resilience.

“Our laws and regulations especially in the extractive sectors such as forestry and mining are simply being disregarded resulting in numerous legal cases before our courts and huge loss of income through transfer pricing”, he said.

Mr Rarawa lastly spoke on population mentioning that one way of building resilience in the country is to reduce our population growth.

“Our population growth is like the elephant in the room.

“Nobody is talking about it or wants to talk about it,” he said.

Mr Rarawa also said that a fast growing population that demands more from the economy means less will be preserved for the future.

He stated that the pace of population growth needs to slow down as means to build resilience for the future.