Member of Parliament for Ugi and Ulawa Constituency, James Tora, has described areas prioritized by the 2009 budget as fundamental to move Solomon Islands forward.
Speaking during the debate on the 2009 budget, Mr. Tora said the priority areas includes reconciliation, rehabilitation, national security and foreign relations, infrastructure development, social services, and the economic and productive sector and civic affairs.As Minister responsible for the civic affairs sector, Mr. Tora said that his Ministry had achieved a lot during the course of the last financial year in sports and rehabilitation assistance as well as successfully conducting four by elections.
Mr. Tora said that issues which Solomon islands was confronting were rather complicated and that national leaders must have God's wisdom to discern the best options for dealing with the issues affecting the country today.
Many of these issues, he said, unfortunately are also global and regional in nature.
"It has been obvious in the country today that with the continuous decline in the logging industry, we stand to confront the negative impacts of the current global financial and economic crisis" Mr. Tora said.
Commenting on the reconciliation and rehabilitation, the Home Affairs Minister said that his Ministry was working closely with the Ministry of Reconciliation to achieve key government goals in these two important areas.
He told Parliament that reconciliation and rehabilitation are essential ingredients to the country's future social and economic progress, particularly in the face of the current global financial and economic crisis.
Echoing sentiments of Finance Minister, Snyder Rini, he said that "reconciliation and rehabilitation is everyone's responsibility and ... we all have the duty to participate in keeping this nation together."
Source: National Express