would like to encourage all of us, the private sector, non - government organizations, civil society groups, communities and all solomon islanders to work with our government as they take us forward. i also believe this is an opportune time to rethink and strategize how we could realistically map our future. as we heard earlier, the economic forecast for the next four years is for an average growth of 4. 5 percent. however, there are several issues with what would have been quite a positive outlook. firstly, as i have discussed during previous annual report speeches, this rate of growth is far too slow and will not transform our economy. we have a rapidly growing population that will demand more resources and support. we need to address our high population growth. secondly, the 1 percentage point increase to 4. 5 percent ( from 3. 5 percent over the past five years ) only reflects the major infrastructure projects that will take place in the next few years. once they are completed, growth is expected to return to its normal trend. thirdly, growth has only centred on a few commodities like logs and have been far from inclusive, meaning that people in the rural areas have not benefited from the positive spill overs of development or in pidgin “ mefala rural pipol no lukim nomoa growth ya ”. what should we do? i will share some thoughts on possible policy directions that could and should be undertaken in the next couple of years. ( a ) robust growth to realistically grow the economy without overheating it, we should be growing at an average of 6 % over the medium term. to achieve this, we should address structural issues in the economy, and appropriately invest in the growth areas that we can realistically develop and sustain. now, government has successfully made strides in some structural reform areas over the past couple of years, from the business and regulatory environments to communication and taxes which, are being implemented. nonetheless, more needs to be done. to grow at 6 percent means it will only take us around 12 years to double growth. such a growth also has to be inclusive, cross cutting and achievable. so how do we go about it? ( b ) foundations for an inclusive and broad - based economy to illustrate this point, we could lay the foundations of a broad - based economy by putting more emphasis on agriculture and tourism ( without disregarding the other sectors ). agriculture is an inclusive growth area because most people in our rural

areas can participate and benefit from its positive spill overs. to revitalize the sector, we should seriously invest in : 1. replanting. aside from the current stocks, we need to replenish the stock of our agricultural current commodities over the next three to four years. a. for cocoa, the country needs to boost output by an additional 3, 000 metric tons per year. this means growing an additional 885 hectares of cocoa plants. and if the country can export 10, 000 tons a year, foreign exchange earnings will increase significantly. this will at least reduce the gap in the revenue loss from the expected decline in logging. b. to boost copra and coconut oil production, we would need to plant nearly 2 million new 4 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches coconut trees. c. while, palm oil would need an additional 800 hectares. this is only a 12 percent increase from the current acreage of palm oil plantations. 2. growing new cash crops. the country needs to promote the growing and export of promising cash crops, such as kava, cassava and noni, and even delve into new ones like ginger and chilli. 3. the key stakeholders. enhance and properly resource the ministry of agriculture, and associated agencies such as cema to appropriately support farmers, while also liaising with development partners and programs such as pharma. with respect to tourism, this is a growth sector with cross cutting positive spill overs and can be a catalyst for infrastructure, employment, education, wholesale retail, transport and technology development. as such, tourism solomons ’ target of reaching 60, 000 visitors by 2025 is achievable, if we invest in : 1. around two medium size brand hotels in the country to act as an anchor for the growth of other tourism standard hotels. 2. better sea, air and land infrastructure around the country to support this industry that would also facilitate trade. the recent opening of munda for international air services is a commendable start. 3. and as earlier expressed, enhance and properly resource the key stakeholders such as the ministry of tourism, and tourism solomons, in conjunction with other stakeholders to actively promote this sector. now these are just some ways we could shape our economy as we see slowdowns in the forestry industry, and strive to diversify the economy. there are of course other important sectors such as fisheries and manufacturing, where due to time, we may discuss at another time. finally, as