WORK on establishing Solomon Islands diplomatic mission in London, United Kingdom is now in its final stage.

Supervising Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade Christopher Laore informed Parliament this week that the work will be fully operational once a bank account is ready in any suitable banking institution.

Mr Laore was responding to a question by the Leader of Independent Dr Derek Sikua on details of the cost-benefit analysis that is being conducted by his Ministry to justify the establishment of a Solomon Islands Diplomatic Mission in London.

Mr Laore said $1million has been budgeted for in 2016 which is insufficient at this time because it only caters for office rent and charge de affairs who presently resides in London.

“As soon as we have a High Commissioner we need to increase our budget allocation for London mission.

“The priority now is for the Ministry and the government to review the cost effectiveness of the existing mission. In so doing the priority is to strengthen the work of mission and this will be done through beefing up missions through innovative approaches that involve other sectoral ministries.

“The ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade in its process of dispatching mission to Solomon Islands overseas missions to assist them address issues that will strengthen their work,” said Mr Laore.

He said the London Office is another step into the country’s strategic engagement, as in establishing any mission the cost of operations and overhead cost will be substantial.

“While taking into account the cost also foresees the benefit, for we always gathered the balance between cost and gains that comes with establishing office overseas,” he said.

Mr Laore informed parliament that the work on establishing an office in London started last year, 2016.

However, he adds the devaluation of the Pound Sterling last year devaluated some of the initial costs of the setting up phase.

“The most expensive item as in the case of any diplomatic mission include rentals of the office as well as residence for our representatives

“The establishment of our office in London is a logical one, but specifically the following are considerations that are taken into account.

“Firstly The United Nations (UN) and United Kingdom is our long time partner, a nation that we share historical ties with and it should be noted that it should have been a very first diplomatic mission to have established given our historical heritage, hence, it is still appropriate that we respect our heritage now and do so by establishing what is a long overdue establishment,” he said.

He said secondly in terms with the close ties the countries have, the UK maintains a High Commission in Honiara and our establishment of a mission in London will serve to galvanise long forged relations.

“Thirdly through our establishment of an office in London will commit to further strengthen our long established relations with the United Kingdom at the bilateral level where we hope to tap into cooperation arrangement that are there to venture into.

“And this could be in the areas of development, education, economic and social cooperation, investment, trade, tourism, climate change, technology transfer and so forth.

“Presently the United Kingdom is one of the two largest contributors to the European Development Fund Resources and we benefited from these resources under the partnership that we have with the European Union,” he said.

Mr Laore said the United Kingdom is a Superpower and one of the global agenda drivers and Solomon Islands’ close collaboration with them will be of interest to the country.

“Fourthly, a question that should be poised is why not continued to use our Brussels and Geneva missions to manage and sustain our relations and ties with the UK, a worthy point that is. However, it is also important to know that multilateral diplomacy continues to rise and has over taken bilateral diplomacy in the conduct of international relations. And it is therefore presents a challenging load for our true existing mission in Europe,” he said.

The supervising Foreign minister said the establishment of a new mission to the United Kingdom in London will effectively enable the country’s upscaling of interface to further strengthen our cooperation of work in key institution such as the commonwealth and the IMO of which Solomon Islands is an active member.

He informed parliament that Liverpool is one of the biggest recipients of Oil Palm export from the Guadalcanal Palm Oil Limited (GPPOL), an export commodity of high quality.

“The returns of this financial export is significant and we look to grow if the plans to expand GPPOL are carried through. These kinds of commodity and trade we want to encourage our trade missions in boosting our markets or even better look for alternative markets for our commodity whether it be oil palm, cocoa or tuna loins,” Mr Laore said.