UN General Assembly
2009

I bring warm greetings to the Assembly from the happy isles and convey my Government and people’s profound congratulations to Mr. Treki on his assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session. We are confident that, under his leadership, we will harvest the opportunities the global agenda has to offer. My delegation further takes this opportunity to commend his predecessor, Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann. He indeed provided exemplary leadership and inspired us to realize our unique collective strength. Throughout his tenure in office, he kept the most vulnerable people at the front, centre and back of all of our engagements. We wish him God’s blessing in his future endeavours. The global financial and economic crisis has presented immense challenges to the international community. Simply put, the effects of the crisis are impacting all members of the United Nations family. Consequently, Solomon Islands’ economy has been hit by low commodity prices, declining revenues and widening budgetary deficits. My country has responded by freezing all Government recruitment and reducing national recurrent and development expenditures by